Engaged pilot family looked at wedding sites the day of DC air crash (exclusive)

Timothy LilleyFather of American Airlines Pilot Sam Lilly, says his son planned for his wedding before this week’s deadly air accident in Washington, DC

“Tim”, when the 58-year-old pilot for a private jet company passes by, tells people that his wife helped Sam and his fiancé find the perfect place for their ceremony just a few hours before AA flight 5342 collided with a black hawk helicopter Near Ronald Reagan National Airport on Wednesday, January 29.

A total of 67 people died when the two aircraft sank into the Potomac River. There were 60 passengers and four crew members at American Airline’s regional level and three people at the military helicopter.

“The day this happened, my wife saw in places for them the day he died,” Tim tells People.

He notes that his wife is Sam’s stepmother, but that Lilleys was looking forward to seeing their family growing.

Sam and his fiancé lived in Charlotte, NC, then his job at PSA Airlines, which is part of the American Airlines Group, was based there, but the couple planned to have their wedding in Savannah, GA.

“He loved working for PSA,” his father says.

“He was engaged to a girl he met at the Junior Academy. They were friends then, but they had not seen each other and they resumed in recent years, and they would get married in the fall. And we love her. We were glad that she would join our family, but it just didn’t work, Tim continues.

Sam followed in Tim’s footsteps and became a pilot after learning early on that a career in marketing was not for him, Tim explains.

Sam was born in Hawaii while Tim was based there for the army, but grew up in Savannah.

As a 14 -year -old, he helped collect $ 5,000 to build clean water wells in Africa. After high school, Sam went to Georgia Southern as a marketing marketing.

“So he did it and when he was done he worked in marketing for just a few months, and he decided it wasn’t for him, so he called me and told me he wanted to become a pilot,” Tim tells People . “And of course I was like,” we should have had this conversation years ago, you knucklehead. ”

Tim says before the accident, Sam “only fulfilled the requirements to upgrade to the captain.”

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On an emotional Facebook post Shared Thursday, January 30, Tim wrote: “I was so proud when Sam became a pilot. Now it hurts that I can’t even cry myself to sleep.”

“I know I will meet him again but my heart breaks down,” he continued. “He did well in his career and personal life. He was engaged to marry in the fall.”

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the crash, with the NTSB line.