- A helicopter assigned to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) crashed off the coast of Egypt, killing five American soldiers and two foreign soldiers.
- President-elect Joe Biden said in a statement on Twitter: “We are deeply saddened by the loss of peacekeepers.
- President Donald Trump, on the other hand, seems to have said nothing yet about Thursday afternoon’s tragedy, and instead 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 on Thursday. President-elect Joe Biden mourned. President Donald Trump, on the other hand, complained about Fox News.
A helicopter assigned to multinational forces and observers crashed near Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, killing seven people, including a French service member and a check.
A member of the U.S. service survived and was medically evacuated.
An earlier MFO report said six Americans had been killed in the incident, which is why some statements have been released on the matter, saying six Americans were dead. That calculation was revised by the MFO on Thursday afternoon.
Hours after the news of the tragedy, Trump was furiously retweeting people criticizing Fox News. He then tweeted his own criticism of the network.
Donald J. Trump (@RealDonaldTrump) November 12, 2020
That tweet was followed by an election fraud claim, a common theme in many of the president’s recent tweets following Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
As of this writing on Thursday afternoon, Insider could not find a public statement from the President on the tragedy hours earlier.
Biden, whose son Beau Biden served in the National Guard and was stationed in Iraq before dying of brain cancer, expressed grief in a brief statement on Twitter.
-Jo Giden (@Jobiden) November 12, 2020
Following the tragedy, acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, who replaced Mark Asper after he was fired by the president on Monday, issued a statement on the tragic accident.
“The Department of Defense is deeply saddened by the deaths of six U.S. and two partner UN service members in a helicopter crash in the Sinai Peninsula, working with United Nations Multinational Forces and Observers (MFOs),” Miller said in an earlier statement. Updated count
“Yesterday we recognized the sacrifices of millions of American veterans who have defended our nation for generations, and today we sadly remember the last full step that war veterans can pay for their service.” “I extend the department’s condolences to the families, friends and teammates of this service member.”
The MFO, which is implementing a 40-year-old peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, is currently investigating the cause of the crash, although mechanical failure is being blamed.
Update: This post has been updated. A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the number killed in a crash due to an erroneous statement by the MFO. A recent MFO statement reported that five U.S. soldiers were killed in the crash.
