A pilot’s parents work to clear his name after the deadliest crash in decades

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. WASHINGTON—Tim and Sheri Lilley watched as a video on a large screen displayed the final seconds of their son’s life. Gray shading marked the contours of a cockpit window.

Commands from an air-traffic controller crackled. Through the cockpit, the city glowed on the horizon, a strip of twinkling lights severing the night sky from the dark Potomac river. Then, one of the lights morphed into the looming shape of a helicopter, careening into view and growing larger.

The screen snapped to black. The animation showed what Sam Lilley, the first officer of American Airlines Flight 5342, likely saw, the National Transportation Safety Board believes. The NTSB played the video in a large auditorium as an opening presentation of its investigation.

A year ago, on Jan. 29, Sam was in the cockpit of the American Airlines regional jet when it was hit midair by a Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, killing all 67 onboard both aircraft including 28-year-old Sam. It was America’s deadliest aviation disaster in two decades.

For the Lilleys, seated among other victims’ families, the board meeting would finally grant an official answer to a question that had dogged them since the crash: Would investigators conclude that Sam had contributed to the accident? “Our human condition is we want answers," Sheri, Sam’s stepmother, said during a break from the board meeting. “We want to know why something happened. And it’s probably because we feel like once we know the who and the why, then we can demand some justice." The crash killed 11 young figure skaters as well as parents and coaches who were returning from a national development camp in Wichita, Kan., including the parents of