DC plane crash victim's father says 'culture of complacency' allowed fatal accident to happen

The begetter of the American Airlines co-pilot who died successful a midair collision adjacent Reagan National Airport successful January told FOX Business Thursday a "culture of complacency" allowed the catastrophe to happen. 

Tim Lilley spoke astir his son, First Officer Sam Lilley, up of a Senate proceeding connected the Jan. 29 collision involving an Army helicopter. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy told lawmakers the families and friends of the 67 victims "are present today," and "I tin lone ideate what they're going through." 

"My lad was an outstanding young antheral whose vocation and his beingness was conscionable taking off, and we were not acceptable to suffer him, and we ne'er would be. And there's 66 different families that are going done this aforesaid thing. This mishap was truthful preventable," Lilley told FOX Business. 

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"And I'm hoping contiguous that immoderate of this is going to travel out. You know, we truly request to enactment connected this civilization of complacency that allowed this mishap to happen." 

During the hearing, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said a preliminary study from the NTSB "provides alarming statistic successful utilizing existing FAA information connected the risks astatine DCA to aviation safety. 

Tim Lilley, inset, said the Jan. 29 midair collision adjacent Reagan National Airport successful Washington, D.C., was "so preventable." (FOX Business/AP/Ben Curtis)

"That information includes — and NTSB provides these numbers — successful a 13-year period, not a azygous period went by without astatine slightest 1 ‘close call’ betwixt a chopper and a commercialized pitchy operating astatine DCA [Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport]. Between Oct. 21 and Dec. 24, determination were 85 incidents wherever the lateral separation betwixt a commercialized pitchy and a chopper was little than 1,500 feet, and the vertical separation was little than 200 feet," helium said. "And during that aforesaid [13-year] timeframe, determination were much than 15,000 ‘close proximity events’ betwixt a chopper and a commercialized airplane." 

Lilley added that, since the disaster, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has "really been a champion to alteration things and alteration them not astatine the gait of government, but much similar astatine the gait of business, which is thing that we're conscionable championing. We emotion that." 

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He besides said "the worst time of my beingness was the 29th of January" and "the second-worst time of my beingness was the time after. 

"If you've ever had to beryllium successful connected an NTSB brief, and you're afloat of orphans and widows and families that person mislaid their sons, and the archetypal feline who gets up and briefs is the occurrence chief, and helium tells you it was a gruesome scene, determination was assemblage parts dispersed crossed the crystal — this is thing that nary household should ever person to spell through," Lilley said. 

"And what we're trying to bash here, we're conscionable going to marque definite that nary household ever has to spell done that aforesaid scenario."  

In this photograph shared by Tim Lilley, Sam Lilley, the co-pilot who died connected the fatal American Airlines Flight 5342, smiles from the cockpit of an airplane. (Tim Lilley)

Homendy opened her grounds Thursday by saying "it's important that we retrieve contiguous that those who died astatine DCA and successful different accidents we analyse aren't numbers. ... These are mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, wives, husbands, cousins, champion friends who won't beryllium determination with their loved ones for Easter ovum hunts, Passover Seders, the extremity of Ramadan, Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduation, each of life's celebrations.

"Their families and friends, whether successful idiosyncratic oregon online, are present today. I tin lone ideate what they're going through, and I privation to instrumentality a infinitesimal to again explicit our deepest sympathies to each of them," she said. "Please cognize that we support you successful our hearts arsenic we diligently enactment to find however this calamity happened. So, nary one, nary 1 experiences the profoundly important nonaccomplishment you indispensable consciousness today." 

Dailey Crafton, the member of unfortunate Casey Crafton, told FOX Business, "I deliberation for myself, and I deliberation astir of the families, we're looking for accountability for what happened from immoderate bureau needs to person accountability.

"We're devastated. It's a large gaping spread successful our lives, and it comes successful waves," helium added. "Some days are each right. Some days you can, like, you hardly don't adjacent privation to get retired of bed, and you cognize you can't halt reasoning astir it and feeling conscionable anxious and stressed retired and everything. So, it's a roller coaster." 

Salvage crews pulling up a portion of the Army Black Hawk chopper progressive successful the midair collision Feb. 6 . (AP/Jose Luis Magana)

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Maxim Naumov, a fig skater whose parents, erstwhile Olympians Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, died successful the midair collision, told NBC’s "Today" amusement Thursday the past connection helium heard from his parent was to "let maine cognize that they’re switching flights and that if I could prime them up."