Hero pilot made last ditch bid to save doomed American Airlines jet seconds before it crashed killing all 67 on board

The hero pilots of the doomed American Airlines jet made a last ditch bid to save their passengers just moments before the fatal crash with an Army Black Hawk helicopter. Captain Jonathan Campos, 34, and First Officer Samuel Lilley, 28, tried to pull the American Airlines jet's nose up in the last few seconds before Wednesday's crash, preliminary data from the plane's flight recorder has revealed US Coast Guard, along with other search and rescue teams, search debris at the crash site in the Potomac River on January 30, 2025 in the aftermath of the collision of American Eagle flight 5342 and a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed last week An Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines passenger jet collided in mid-air over the Potomac River Wednesday night near DC's Reagan Washington National Airport Investigators said they hoped to reconcile the difference with data from the helicopter's black box and planned to refine the tower data, which can be less reliable. With the US Capitol in the background, cranes are pictured in the Potomac river Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025, near the wreckage of an American Airlines jet, at left, that collided mid-air with an Army Black Hawk helicopter in Arlington, Va., as seen from Alexandria, Virginia National Transportation Safety Board investigators and members of the salvage crew recover wreckage from the Army Black Hawk helicopter that collided with an American Airlines jet Wednesday night, Jan. 29, 2025, near DC's Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport National Transportation Safety Board investigators examine a flight data recorder recovered from the wreckage of a mid-air collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet Wednesday night, Jan. 29, 2025, near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia There were 64 people aboard the American Airlines jet and three soldiers aboard the Army Black Hawk helicopter. Families of the victims of a mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter stand near the wreckage site in the Potomac River at the end of the runway 33 from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025, in Arlington, Virginia Rescue and salvage crews with cranes work near the wreckage of an American Airlines jet in the Potomac River from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025 Family members were taken in buses with a police escort to the Potomac River bank near where the two aircraft came to rest after colliding.