‘Insult’: Trans pilot slams US crash rumours

A transgender US Black Hawk pilot has hit back after rumours spread online that she was at the controls when it collided with a passenger jet.

A transgender soldier has said she is “alive and well” after false rumours spread online that she was the pilot of the military helicopter that collided with a passenger jet killing 67 people in Washington DC.

On Wednesday night, local time, American Airlines flight 5342 collided with a Black Hawk military helicopter on the approach to Ronald Reagan National Airport

Jo Ellis, a Black Hawk pilot with the Virginia National Guard, posted a video online on Friday morning, US time, saying it was “insulting to the families to tie this to a political agenda”.

The soldier’s response follow comments on Thursday when US President Donald Trump tried to tie diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to the tragedy in Washington DC.

Critics of DEI claim it places race, gender or disability, for instance, above merit for jobs. While DEI proponents have said it encourages unrepresented groups to apply for roles and recognises discrimination exists.

The Coast Guard investigates aircraft wreckage on the Potomac River on January 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Giles/ U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images)

Mr Trump claimed that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had a “diversity push” that “focused on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities,” including for air traffic control roles.

When Mr Trump was challenged by reporters as to why he was focusing on diversity, when there was no information to suggest that was the cause of the crash, he replied: “It could have been, we don’t know, but it shouldn’t have happened”.

Asked to why he was blaming diversity, he added “I have common sense, OK, and unfortunately a lot of people don’t”.

The leading theories behind the crash are that the Black Hawk helicopter was flying too high and that the single air traffic controller on duty at the time was overworked.

A US Army UH-60M Black Hawk (Courtesy Lockheed Martin).

Trans pilot rumours

Soon after, Ms Ellis’ picture and name began to be circulated online with scuttlebutt that a trans woman was at the helm of the Black Hawk helicopter.

Ms Ellis is a chief warrant officer and Black Hawk helicopter pilot who has served in the Virginia National Guard for 15 years.

She has also served in Iraq, reported Newsweek.

On social media, including Elon Musk’s X, there were suggestions she may have deliberately doomed the aircraft in anger at the Trump administration’s anti-trans policies.

The President seems likely to follow through on a plan to ban transgender people from the military.

A trans pilot being blamed for the disaster would have fit neatly into Mr Trump’s claims that DEI may have been a cause behind it.

Black Hawk pilot Jo Ellis. Picture: Facebook.

Jo Ellis said the rumours were “insulting”. Facebook

‘Insulting’

However, on Friday, a solemn looking Ms Ellis, 34, took to social media to show she was still well.

“I understand some people have associated me with a crash in DC, and that is false,” she said.

“It is insulting to the families to try to tie this to some sort of political agenda. They don’t deserve that. I don’t deserve this.

“And I hope that you all know that I am alive and well, and this should be sufficient for you all to end all the rumours.”

Talking additionally to the Daily Mail, Ms Ellis said she was “shocked” by the online slander.

Three people were on board the helicopter, one woman and two women. Chief warrant officers Andrew Eaves and Ryan O’Hara, both from Georgia, have been identified. The female co-pilot has not.

US President Donald Trump has signed a number of anti-DEI executive orders. (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)

Mr Trump had admitted the cause of the crash remains “unknown” but nonetheless signed a memorandum hours after his press briefing directing the FAA to examine all hirings in the last four years to see if standards had been compromised, a key claim of diversity critics.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, one of the most senior Democrats in the US, has slammed Mr Trump.

He said the President’s comments were “shameful”.

“It’s a very irresponsible statement that was made by the President,” Mr Jeffries said during a press conference in Brooklyn, New York.

“Bodies are still being pulled from the Potomac, children were killed, and future ice skating Olympians were killed, future leaders in Wichita, Kansas, and beyond were killed as a result of this tragedy.

“We don’t need misdirection and we don’t need misinformation coming from the highest office in the land. We need integrity, we need decency, we need leadership,” Mr Jeffries said. “There is not a scintilla of evidence that exists to suggest that women and people of colour are to blame for the tragedy that took place”.

Originally published as ‘Insult’: Trans pilot slams US crash rumours