Former fiancée of American Flight 5342 pilot furious over Trump's DEI claims after crash
The former fiancée of American Eagle Capt. Jonathan Campos became enraged at the idea of people seeing his 'very Puerto Rican' face plastered on screens and immediately assuming he was at fault for last week's deadly crash between a passenger jet and a military helicopter.
Nicole Suissa blames her frustration on racially charged remarks made by President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the midair collision that killed 67 people.
'This man's body hadn't even been pulled out of the river yet, and we're talking about him being unqualified because his name is Campos,' Suissa told ABC News of the man she met while they were students at Brooklyn's John Dewey High School.
With the Jan. 29 crash freshly under investigation, Trump hosted a 40-minute press conference where he wasted little time looking for people to blame.
'We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some strong opinions,' the president said Jan. 30.
Trump then equated employment practices benefiting minority groups with promoting incompetence, and indicated the fate of American Flight 5342 may have been the result of diversity, equity and inclusion hiring, or DEI. Asked how he came to that conclusion, Trump replied, 'Because I have common sense.'
The National Aviation Safety Board indicated Tuesday that the chopper in the crash may have been flying at an unsafe altitude.
Campos flew aircraft professionally after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2015. He'd been with American Airlines for six years.
Suissa said she knew Campos for more than two decades. That period included dating on and off, getting engaged, calling it off, then ultimately deciding to remain close friends. Knowing Campos so well, Suissa says she doubts he would've done anything reckless and feels he's being scapegoated.
'What really irked me to no end was it was, the next day they published Jonathan's name and Jonathan's very Puerto Rican-looking face, all I could hear in the back of my head was all these people, all these DEI fear-mongering people going, 'You see, I knew he'd be Hispanic,' and I lost my mind,' Suissa told ABC News.
She calls the situation 'infuriating' and 'abhorrent.'
Trump did not identify Campos by name.
Several days after the fatal incident, the Army identified the helicopter pilot as Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, putting out a statement that included the soldier's many accolades. She and the two others onboard, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves and Army Staff Sgt. Ryan O'Hara, were all killed in the collision.
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