Is it true that the military helicopter that collided with the airliner in Washington was flown by a transgender woman?

After a passenger plane collided with a military helicopter in the skies over Washington at the end of January 2025, information spread on the Internet that a trans person was at the helm of the latter. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.

At the end of January 2025, a plane crash occurred near Washington airport, as a result of which died 67 people, including Soviet and Russian figure skaters who have worked as coaches in the United States for many years. Two days later the American users X and then Russian media reported that trainee pilot Jo Ellis, a transgender woman who served in the Virginia National Guard, was at the controls of the helicopter that collided with the passenger side. Some resources emphasized that she was the one to blame for the incident. Yes, edition News.ru released a note entitled “Transgender killed Russian figure skaters in the USA,” and “Arguments and facts” called their material “Revenge of LGBT. A transgender anti-Trumpist is behind the death of Russian figure skaters.” Russian social network users claimed: “The pilot flew the aircraft erratically, ignoring changes in altitude,” which could have caused the crash. Similar publications received hundreds of thousands of views, in particular in Telegram channels “Anatoly Shariy"(1 million views at the time of writing this analysis), "Live broadcast"(767,000), "Sanya in Florida"(516,200), "Notes from a veteran"(104,900), etc.

On the night of January 30 near Washington's Reagan Airport happened plane crash: an American Airlines passenger plane collided with an American Air Force Black Hawk helicopter during landing. There were 60 passengers and four crew members on board the plane, and three military personnel on board the helicopter. None of them survived. Soon during the investigation there were named the names of two of the three dead Black Hawk crew members. The name of the third has not been made public, prompting a wave of speculation about the identity of that person.

The American edition of the Santa Monica Observer was one of the first to publish the name of the third dead military man - the corresponding article was published under the headline “A transgender pilot named Joe Ellis flew a Black Hawk helicopter into an American Airlines plane at Reagan Airport.” This note was later deleted, but Facebook users managed to post screenshots with comments like: “Sad, very sad. Mental illness caused by the actions of our own government?”

Following American Internet users, Russian media and Telegram channels also disseminated information about Ellis’s involvement in the collision. Some bloggers claimedthat the plane crash could have been deliberately set up by her - as an act of terrorism. According to another version, Ellis deliberately provoked collision in response to decree US President Donald Trump on January 27, banning transgender people from serving in the military.

January 31 Ellis published post on Facebook, denying his death or involvement in the incident. She called the allegations insane and disrespectful to the families of the crash victims, who “deserve better than internet trolling.” About two hours after this publication, Ellis also published Proof of Life video:

“Interesting morning. This is Joe Ellis, I'm a Black Hawk pilot with the Virginia National Guard. I understand that some people associate me with the disaster in DC, and that is not true. Trying to link this to some kind of political agenda is insulting to the families [of the victims]; they don't deserve this, I don't deserve this, and I hope you all know that I am alive and well and that should be enough for you all to put an end to all the rumors. I also have a statement: The Department of Defense is responsible for casualty notifications. There were no Virginia National Guard members on the Black Hawk that collided with the plane Wednesday night. Thank you".

January 28—after Trump signed an executive order banning trans people from serving in the military and shortly before the plane crash at Reagan Airport—Ellis published column about his military career. It says the pilot joined the Virginia National Guard in 2009 and served in Iraq, Guatemala and Kuwait. In 2023, Ellis notified command of her intention to transition and, after receiving approval, began hormone therapy. The column emphasizes that the pilot combines his service with work as an IT engineer in the private sector and, thanks to this, independently pays for medical services related to treatment gender dysphoria. “I served in the same unit for 15 years. I want to serve at least another 15 years. I love my state and I love my country,” Ellis states. She also thanked her colleagues for their support. 

February 2, US Army spokesman statedthat the third Black Hawk crew member killed was Captain Rebecca Loback. It was she who was at the helm of the helicopter (it is noted that the name of the serviceman was not disclosed at the request of her relatives). There is no information in open sources that Loback was a trans person (as were her deceased colleagues: Chief Warrant Officer Andrew Lloyd Eves and Staff Sergeant Ryan Austin O'Hara).

It appears that the initial source of reports implicating Ellis in the crash was social media user X @FakeGayPolitics, who wrote in the early morning hours of January 31: “The Black Hawk pilot has been identified as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jo Ellis, a transgender woman. Jo Ellis served in the Virginia National Guard for 15 years and transitioned while a pilot. "Joe has made radical anti-Trump statements on social media." The post was deleted later that evening.

In the Russian media space, false news about the death of Jo Ellis also appeared on January 31. One of the earliest publications found by “Verified” was the post of a member of the Public Chamber of Dagestan Shamilya Khadulaeva, which appeared on his Telegram channel on January 31 at 10:31 Moscow time. Two hours later, the same false information was published by the Deputy General Director of VGTRK and a former deputy of the Moscow City Duma Andrey Medvedev, whose post received 230,000 views. It is this post that many Telegram channels refer to, which later shared this fake.

Thus, transgender pilot Jo Ellis was not involved in the January 29 plane crash near the airport in Washington. Refuting her death, Ellis recorded a video in which she called such messages an invention of trolls.

Cover photo: social networks

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