On Jan 29 there was a mid-air collision between a Bombardier CRJ700 airliner and a US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk over the Potomac River close to Washington’s Ronald Reagan Airport.
The independent Russian news site Insider.ru reported in its Anti-Fake column that in the days following the tragedy Russian media gleefully reported that the pilot of the military helicopter was transgender.
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Insider cited several Russian propaganda channels as running the story which was based on a post on the “Fraxis” X channel, a notorious anti-gay blogger who “identified” the pilot as Chief Warrant Officer Jo Ellis a 15-year transitioned veteran pilot from Virginia’s national guard.
Although Fraxis later took down the post (when the truth was revealed) the damage had already been done as the claim was rapidly circulated by others sympathetic to the anti-LGBTQ lobby and the Russian media.
The pro-Kremlin publication News.ru ran the headline: “Transgender Killed Russian Figure Skaters in the USA” on Friday, referring to the 1994 World Figure Skating Champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov who were passengers on the commercial aircraft.
The Russian news site “Argumenty i Fakty (Arguments and Fact)” claimed that Ellis was a trainee pilot who had “operated the aircraft chaotically” and that it was her actions that could have led to the plane crash. It also said she had posted criticism of US President Donald Trump’s policy to exclude transgender people from military service on social media.
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Two of the three crew members of the Blackhawk were quickly identified as: Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, a pilot, and Staff Sgt. Ryan O’Hara, the aircraft’s dedicated crew chief (aircraft mechanic), and were both named on Friday.
According to the UK’s Daily Mail details of the third member were initially withheld at the request of the family. However, she was identified by the US Army Public Affairs Office on Saturday as Capt. Rebecca Lobach, an aviation officer and the pilot-in-command of the helicopter.
All three service members were on active duty in the US Army and were not National Guard members.
Meanwhile, Jo Ellis who is a UH60 Blackhawk pilot wrote on Facebook on Friday in response to the rumors linking her to the Washington crash:
“Some craziness has happened on the internet and I’m being named as one of the pilots of the DC crash. Please report any accounts or posts you see. It’s insulting to the victims and families of those lost and they deserve better than this BS from the bots and trolls of the internet.”
It was notable that in all the Russian media accounts they emphasized that “the LGBT community is recognized as being extremist in the Russian Federation where such activities are prohibited.”
The Russian politician and former judo champion Dmitry Nosov told News.ru that following the Washington plane crash transgender people would be “flown out” of the United States Armed Forces much faster.
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