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Conservatives are now blaming the DC crash on a trans woman who had nothing to do with it
February 01 2025, 08:15

Conservatives started spreading a rumor yesterday that the military helicopter that crashed into American Eagle Flight 5342 on Wednesday night was being piloted by a transgender woman as part of a larger effort on the right to blame the tragedy on historically oppressed minorities, even in the absence of any facts to back that narrative.

And now, the trans woman at the center of the false internet rumors is speaking out and asking for help to report and stamp out the lies.

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On Wednesday night, the U.S. had its first major commercial airline crash since 2009 when American Eagle Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas collided with a Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington D.C.. There were no survivors among the plane’s over 60 passengers.

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While an investigation is currently underway and people involved in transportation policy are pointing out the funding and staffing issues aviation safety administrations have faced since Donald Trump took office, the right has been trying to blame the crash on minorities.

Trump held a press conference where he claimed that “diversity” was to blame because former President Joe Biden allegedly hired people of color and women who weren’t qualified. When pressed for any evidence of this, he just said he knew because “I have common sense.”

Online, someone who goes by “FakeGayPolitics” blamed Jo Ellis, a member of the Virginia National Guard who is also transgender. Ellis is a helicopter pilot who was deployed to Iraq in 2011 and earned the Air Medal for “acts of heroism or meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight.”

“The pilot of the Black Hawk has been identified as Chief Warrant Officer 2 (CW2) Jo Ellis, a transgender woman,” the post stated. “Jo Ellis served in the Virginia National Guard for 15 years and transitioned while serving as a pilot. Jo has been making radicalized anti-Trump statements on socials.”

The misinformation spread on social networks and the story was even picked up by some news websites, according to PinkNews.

But it simply wasn’t true that Ellis was operating that helicopter. First, the people operating that helicopter have already been identified as Ryan O’Hara and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, according to the BBC.

Moreover, there were no survivors, and Ellis has been posting on Facebook, telling people to report the misinformation about her.

“Some craziness has happened on the internet and I’m being named as one of the pilots of the DC crash,” she wrote early on Friday. “Please report any accounts or posts you see. It’s insulting to the victims and families of those lost and they deserve better than this BS from the bots and trolls of the internet.”

The false rumor that a trans woman is behind the crash fits with the right’s attacks on transgender people serving in the military. Earlier this week, Trump signed an executive order banning transgender people from serving openly in the military, an order that could get 8,000 to 15,000 servicemembers discharged.

Instead of providing a non-discriminatory pretense for firing an entire class of people from the military, Trump’s order relied on blatant negative stereotypes, saying that transgender people are simply incapable of leading “an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle.”

Blaming diversity hires also deflects from the staffing issues at aviation safety bureaus.

In the brief time that he has been in the White House, Trump has offered severance packages to two million federal workers, which may have included air traffic controllers, in order to create a “more streamlined and flexible workforce” and to ensure that federal employees know that their jobs aren’t guaranteed.

He also implemented a hiring freeze on federal civilian employees, which may have prevented the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from hiring air traffic controllers. At the same time, Trump ordered the FAA to stop all “Biden DEI hiring programs.”

Trump ally Elon Musk forced the former head of the FAA, Michael Whitaker, to resign after he proposed over $600,000 in fines for Musk’s company SpaceX over safety concerns.

Trump fired the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and dismissed all members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee last week as well. The Aviation Security Advisory Committee was created by Congress in 1988 after the PanAm Flight 103 bombing.

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