The 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 plane's nose up in the last few seconds before Wednesday's crash, preliminary data from the plane's flight recorder has revealed. 'At one point very close to the impact, there was a slight change in pitch, an increase in pitch,' National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Todd Inman said in a press conference Saturday night.