viewers branded the programme “ghoulish” and “sick” over its coverage of the helicopter crash.
67 people have been confirmed dead after a Blackhawk helicopter smashed into a passenger plane over the Potomac River in the city, including young figure skaters.
In a controversial segment on Sky News this morning (January 31), one reporter headed to a helicopter and aeroplane simulator with a trained pilot to experience what the pilots’ final moments would have been like.
News correspondent Paul Kelso wanted to “get a sense of the last moments each aircraft experienced” before the fatal collision. The journalist explained: “So we are in a helicopter simulator… where are we?”
Voyager Flight Simulation co-founder Paul Lang then explained: “We’re above Washington, we’re coming down the Potomac towards the airport, and we’re just about to turn in on what it looks like the helicopter was tracking over the river.
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Sky News has been slammed for its controversial segment (Image: Sky News)
“This is exactly the angle I reckon they were flying at. Just about here, just about at this time…” Lang added that neither pilot would know about the crash “until it actually happened”.
He ended the segment by saying: “And suddenly, this is where the flight ended.”
Fuming social media users took to X – formerly Twitter – to complain about the segment, with one writing: “This is a bit sick…” and another simply writing: “Ghoul!” with two furious emojis.
One reporter joined a pilot in a flight simulator (Image: Sky News)
Someone else said the show was in “appallingly bad taste”, and a fourth social media user said: “Utterly shameful and sick. @Ofcom will be getting many complaints over this. Think of the families and victims. Disgusted.”
“Very poor taste, Sky, wtf,” somebody else echoed.
Express.co.uk has contacted Sky News for comment.