The family of the female helicopter pilot killed in Wednesday’s mid-air collision has asked the Army to keep her name under wraps amid intense online vitriol.
The decision follows an outcry—largely from right-wing figures—that has tried to pin blame for the disaster on those operating the Black Hawk helicopter that collided with an American Airlines jet, causing both aircraft to plunge into the icy Potomac River, killing 67 people.
President Donald Trump is among those who seem to be suggesting the chopper pilot could be at least partially at fault. He said it “was flying too high, by a lot” when it entered the path of a regional jet that was on its final approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
“It was far above the 200 foot limit,” Trump posted Friday, citing preliminary findings from investigators. “That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???”
The U.S. Army identified the other soldiers killed as 28-year-old Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, of Georgia, and 39-year-old Andrew Loyd Eaves, of Maryland.
But it said in a news release it would not release the name of a third soldier, a pilot, “at the request of the family.” It provided no reason for granting the highly unusual request.
An official cause for the collision is yet to be established, but the availability of video and air traffic control recordings has led many people to reach their own conclusions.
Trump and other Republicans immediately politicized the tragedy on Thursday, asserting that DEI policies under Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and the latter’s transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, had allowed unqualified people to be hired as air traffic controllers.
Many right-wingers shifted the focus of their outrage to those inside the helicopter by Friday, however, after multiple outlets—including the military news site Task & Purpose—identified one of its pilots as a woman.
Task & Purpose reported that Eaves was the flight’s senior pilot, O’Hara its crew chief. and the unidentified woman its “second pilot.”
The Army’s decision to not release the second pilot’s name has not stopped the internet from trying to unearth her identity.
A rumor spread on Thursday that a female transgender soldier by the name of Jo Ellis was the mystery pilot.
This forced Ellis, who is a Black Hawk pilot, to post a video to Facebook where she showed she was alive and clearly not involved in the collision, which had no survivors.
“Interesting morning,” she said. “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.”
Trump has a long history of remarks disparaging service members and veterans, including the infamous “suckers and losers” comment from a Europe trip in 2018.
The president has not made any remarks about the D.C. tragedy since Thursday, but has previously seemed to indicate—including through his selection of Pete Hegseth as defense secretary—that he supports sweeping changes in the U.S. military that may include sidelining women from certain roles.
Hegseth has spoken against women in combat roles, and alleged they’ve been included in some positions without reaching the necessary military standard.
“I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles,” Hegseth said on a podcast in November, days after Trump won the election. “It hasn’t made us more effective. Hasn’t made us more lethal. Has made fighting more complicated.”
Hegseth softened his stance during his Senate confirmation hearing as he was pressed by two women—both veterans—on the matter. Like Trump, Hegseth has yet to offer any official remarks since it emerged that a woman was one of the doomed helicopter’s pilots.
