U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Isaiah Miller
- Five American troops, as well as two foreign military personnel, were killed when a helicopter assigned to an international peacekeeping force crashed off the coast of Egypt.
- President-elect Joe Biden issued a statement on Twitter extending “deep condolences to the loved ones of the peacekeepers.”
- President Donald Trump, on the other hand, appears to have not yet said anything about the crash, of Thursday afternoon, and has instead been focused on criticizing Fox News and complaining about the election he lost.
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Five American service members were killed when their helicopter crashed Thursday. President-elect Joe Biden expressed his condolences. President Donald Trump, on the other hand, complained about Fox News.
A helicopter assigned to the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) crashed near Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, killing seven, including one French service member and one Czech.
One US service member survived and was medically evacuated.
An earlier MFO report stated that six Americans had been killed in the incident, which is why some statements issued on that matter say six American dead. That count was revised by MFO Thursday afternoon.
Hours after news of the crash broke, Trump was furiously retweeting people criticizing Fox News. He then tweeted out his own criticism of the conservative network.
—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2020
That tweet was followed by one claiming election fraud, a common theme of many of the president’s recent tweets following Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
As when this was written Thursday afternoon, Insider was unable to find a public statement from the president on the tragedy hours before.
Biden, whose son Beau Biden served in the National Guard and deployed to Iraq before he passed away from brain cancer, expressed his condolences in a short statement on Twitter.
—Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 12, 2020
In the wake of the crash, acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, who replaced Mark Esper after he was fired by the president on Monday, issued a statement on the tragic crash.
“The Defense Department is deeply saddened by the loss of six U.S. and two partner nation service members in a helicopter crash in the Sinai Peninsula operating with the United Nations Multinational Force and Observers (MFO),” Miller said in a statement issued prior to the updated casualty count.
“Yesterday we recognized the sacrifice of millions of American veterans who have defended our nation for generations, and today we are tragically reminded of the last full measure our uniformed warriors may pay for their service,” he said. “I extend the Department’s condolences to the families, friends and teammates of these service members.”
The MFO, which enforces a 40-year-old peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, is currently investigating the cause of the crash, though a mechanical failure is believed to be to blame.
Update: This post has been updated. A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the number killed in the crash due to an erroneous statement by the MFO. The latest MFO statement reports five US troops were killed in the crash.
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