DC plane crash latest updates: Transgender pilot Jo Ellis speaks out after she was falsely identified as Black Hawk captain – UK Times

Fire chief Donnelly also said his team believes they know where the remaining bodies are. So far, 41 bodies have been recovered; 67 people died in the tragedy.

“We won’t know for sure until we’re done,” he said at the briefing.

The plane’s fuselage will likely have to be removed from the Potomac River, he added.

“Interesting morning,” said Jo Ellis, a Black Hawk pilot with the Virginia Army National Guard, in a Facebook video, dubbed “proof of life.”

Ellis, who is transgender, was falsely identified as the pilot involved in the fatal collision on Wednesday night in the aftermath of Trump’s DEI attacks.

“I understand some people have associated me with the crash in D.C. and that is false. 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.”

In an earlier post, Ellis shared screenshots of X accounts spreading the unsubstantiated claims. One wrote: “So the pilot was trans?…I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“This should be sufficient for you all to end all the rumors,” she said in the video.

At a press briefing at Reagan National Airport, vice president and airport manager Terry Liercke predicted the two runways would be closed for about a week.

The closures are to prevent aircraft from taking off or landing over the crash site, he said.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that President Donald Trump’s claim that the Army H-60 helicopter involved in a fatal collision Wednesday night had been flying too high was based on conversations with investigators.

Earlier in the day, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to state that the doomed aircraft was “far about” the 200 foot ceiling under which helicopters are supposed to operate in the busy airspace near Reagan Washington National Airport.

Asked whether Trump was making his comments based on information gleaned from the investigation into the crash, Leavitt replied: “The president based that statement on truth, because it is truth and it’s fact, and it was relayed to him by the authorities who are overseeing the investigation into this horrific plane collision.”

She added that Trump “continues to be briefed on the collision by everybody across his cabinet,” including his defense and transportation secretaries as well as the head of the National Transportation Safety Board.

D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly said 41 bodies have been recovered and 28 of them have been positively identified. Next of kin notifications have been made to 18 families, he said.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed Trump’s DEI rhetoric, saying there are “deteriorating hiring standards” at the FAA.

The president continues to be briefed about the collision, she said.

“People should not be hired based on their disabilities, their skin colors, or their race…It’s about competence, skill and merit,” Leavitt added.

A GoFundMe hub, created to support the families of those who died in the DC plane crash, has raised almost half a million dollars.

The page collates separate appeals for plane crash victims, and so far includes Casey Crafton, Wendy Jo Shaffer, Mikey Stovall, Justyna Beyer, and her daughter Brielle. Between them, the appeals have raised $498,231 in just 14 hours.

The American Airlines jet was on the final approach to Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., when it collided midair with a military Black Hawk helicopter claiming the lives of 67 people.

The fatal midair collision on Wednesday evening between an Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet moments away from landing at Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport was a shocking and extremely rare occurrence, according to experts who believes human error is the likeliest explanation behind the tragedy that claimed dozens of lives.

In audio of the tower at Reagan communicating with the helicopter crew, a controller can be heard asking if they have the airplane in visual range, telling the chopper to pass behind the jet. Moments later, the two smacked into one another, killing all 64 people on the plane, which was flying in from Wichita, Kansas, and the three service members aboard the Black Hawk. On Thursday, officials with the National Transportation Safety Board told reporters they were not yet certain of the tragedy’s root cause.

Philip Greenspun, an MIT professor and former Delta pilot who flew the same Canadair Regional Jet involved, touched down at the same airport countless times. To his mind, the crash was most likely the result of human error stemming from a confluence of factors.

Justin Rohrlich has the story.

Dozens of bodies have been recovered from the Potomac River after an American Airlines jet collided with a U.S. Army helicopter, claiming the lives of 67 people.

Authorities are going through the gruesome process of identifying the victims found so far, as families of people on board are forced to wait to have their worst fears confirmed.

Among those who have been identified are the personnel flying the two aircraft. The American Airlines crew included Captain Jonathan Campos, 34, and First Officer Sam Lilley, 28. The Blackhawk crew included instructor pilot Andrew Eaves. His female co-pilot has yet to be named.