A transgender helicopter pilot falsely recognized as the person who flew the helicopter concerned within the deadly midair collision in Washington, D.C., took to social media on Friday to close down bogus claims tying her to the catastrophe.
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 web “bots and trolls” who claimed she was concerned within the collision that left 67 folks useless close to Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport.
“It’s insulting to the households to attempt to tie this to some kind of political agenda,” Ellis mentioned within the clip.
“They don’t deserve that. I don’t deserve this. And I hope that you simply all know that I’m alive and effectively, and this needs to be enough for you all to finish all of the rumors.”
She continued by studying an announcement, “The Division of Protection is liable for casualty notifications. There have been no Virginia Nationwide Guard personnel on that Black Hawk that collided with the jetliner on Wednesday night.”
Her remarks arrived lower than 24 hours after President Donald Trump — in a press briefing on the D.C. aircraft crash Thursday — blamed diversity, equity and inclusion efforts for the catastrophe.
Earlier this week, Trump signed an executive order banning trans folks from serving within the navy, a transfer that Ellis was crucial of in an appearance on “The Smerconish Podcast” on Wednesday.
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“In a time when it’s arduous sufficient to satisfy recruiting numbers within the navy, why would you need to, you realize, kick out extra troopers which are keen to sacrifice their life for this nation?” she requested.
The false claims tying Ellis to the collision had been picked up Grok — the synthetic intelligence software on Elon Musk’s X platform — when numerous customers searched her identify, NBC News reported.
The claims would later be eliminated when looking her identify on the AI software, the outlet famous.
