On Friday, two days after a crash between a passenger jet and a military helicopter killed more than 60 people, new footage appeared of the crash.
According to CNN, “both aircraft can clearly be seen flying towards each other, then exploding and falling into the river after the fatal explosion. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.”
BREAKING: New, much more clear video of the American Airlines collision with the Black Hawk.
Thoughts from any Pilots? pic.twitter.com/s11IykHDPM
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) January 31, 2025
While clearer than previously released footage, the video still leaves many unanswered questions about what caused the crash.
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President Trump, in a press conference the day after the crash, sought to blame the tragedy on DEI programs, as well as vaguely defined policies of the Obama and Biden administrations.
Trump, looking like an Oompa Loompa with severe scalp mange uses the American Airlines / Blackhawk helicopter tragedy to trash Obama and Biden and complement himself. This deranged, malignant narcissist is as pathetic a human being as it gets. 😡😡😡👇 pic.twitter.com/J7jN41OGbL
— Bill Madden (@maddenifico) January 30, 2025
“We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system. I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary,” Trump said in the Thursday press conference. “And then when I left office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before. I put safety first, Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen because this was the lowest level. The policy was horrible, and the politics was even worse.”
It’s not clear what policies, exactly, of the Biden Administration might have had anything to do with the cause of the crash this week.
On Friday, another baseless conspiracy theory made the rounds: That the pilot of the helicopter had been a transgender woman, and in fact, a specific woman.
Jo Ellis is a transgender military pilot who appeared on a podcast earlier this week with CNN’s Michael Smerconish, about her service in the military and what it means that the new administration wants to ban people like her from serving.
On Friday, a claim went viral that Ellis was the pilot in the Wednesday crash, with some versions claiming either that Ellis had caused the crash deliberately, or perhaps that the crash proves that trans people are unfit to serve in the military.
Viral posts that claim the pilot of the Black Hawk helicopter involved in the crash in Washington was a transgender woman named Jo Ellis who deliberately caused the incident are false and baseless.
Jo Ellis has posted on Facebook to confirm she’s alive, and not the pilot. pic.twitter.com/30n4raJa8A
— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) January 31, 2025
Alas, none of that is true. Ellis made clear on Facebook that she is alive and well, and also that she had nothing to do with the crash.
Photo courtesy of X screenshot.
