A transgender helicopter pilot falsely identified as the person that flew the helicopter involved in the deadly midair collision in Washington, D.C., took to social media on Friday to shut down bogusclaims tying her to the disaster.
Jo Ellis, a Black Hawk pilot with the Virginia National Guard, shared a “proof of life” video on Facebook after earlier remarking on the “craziness” from internet “bots and trolls” who claimed she was involved in the collision that left 67 people dead near Ronald Reagan National Airport.
“It is insulting to the families to try to tie this to some sort of political agenda,” Ellis said in the clip.
“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 rumors.”
She continued by reading a statement, “The Department of Defense is responsible for casualty notifications. There were no Virginia National Guard personnel on that Black Hawk that collided with the jetliner on Wednesday evening.”
Her remarks arrived less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump — in a press briefing on the D.C. plane crash Thursday — blamed diversity, equity and inclusion efforts for the disaster.
Earlier this week, Trump signed an executive order banning trans people from serving in the military, a move that Ellis was critical of in an appearance on “The Smerconish Podcast” on Wednesday.
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“In a time when it’s hard enough to meet recruiting numbers in the military, why would you want to, you know, kick out more soldiers that are willing to sacrifice their life for this country?” she asked.
The false claims tying Ellis to the collision were picked up Grok — the artificial intelligence tool on Elon Musk’s X platform — when a number of users searched her name, NBC News reported.
The claims would later be removed when searching her name on the AI tool, the outlet noted.