Social media users claim that Vice President Kamala Harris posed for a photo with a North Carolina Air National Guard C-17 during Hurricane Helen and said the supplies aboard the aircraft never disappeared.
This should make you angry.
Apparently Kamala Harris had a C17 full of hurricane relief supplies for an outrageous photoshoot!!!!
It gets worse…
The supplies never arrived.
— Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen_1) October 11, 2024
The basis for this claim is Jonathan Howardis a member of Aerial Recovery, a nonprofit organization that supports relief efforts in North Carolina. What he made was Claim in “Sean Ryan Show” Podcast hosted by Sean Ryanformer US Navy SEAL.
“And from that video, I started getting a lot of messages on my Instagram from people like airplane commanders and squadron commanders. I reached out to the squadron commander in North Carolina. “We had to load up a C-17 with supplies just to take pictures of Kamala, and we never sent the bird,” Howard claimed.
He added: “They sent a whole C-17 full of supplies for hurricane victims just for Kamala to go there and take pictures and take videos. “I never did,” he added.
Harris visited North Carolina on October 5, met with local and state officials, and pledged more federal aid to the state affected by Hurricane Helen, the newspaper reported. . Associated Press. (Related: No, the viral montage doesn’t just depict Hurricane Milton)
The video referenced in the podcast appears to be this. shared Harris posted on social media on October 7th. She appeared in front of a C-17 that was being loaded. Images published by Check Your Fact reveal that the C-17 is loaded Reuters and DVIDS. it is register number According to aviation history, it belongs to 01-01907.
Check Your Fact checked FlightRadar24, which tracks flights, and found that the plane landed in Charlotte, North Carolina, on October 3. The plane did not leave Charlotte until Oct. 9, then departed for Germany, the paper said. flight radar 24. Check Your Fact asked FlightRadar24 additional questions.
Screenshot/FlightRadar24
Lt. Col. Ellis Parks, director of public affairs for the North Carolina National Guard, told Check Your Facts in a phone interview that a “maintenance issue” led to the ship not leaving with those supplies that night.
“They moved all these supplies to another aircraft, and when they moved to that aircraft, believe it or not, that aircraft also had maintenance issues,” Parks said. So, [supplies] We arrived in Asheville on the 6th. ”
The park provided Check Your Fact with the other aircraft’s registration number (93-0602). The plane reportedly flew to Asheville on Oct. 6 and returned to Charlotte the same day. flight radar 24. It also flew to Asheville on October 8 and October 10, according to FlightRadar24.
Screenshot/FlightRadar24
Parks emphasized that the supplies “have arrived in Asheville.”
“They’ve been delivered. They’ve been delivered. These items have arrived in Asheville,” Parks said. “They didn’t make it to Asheville on the plane that was originally loaded with goods. It was due to a maintenance issue. In a literal sense, it was a fuel fuel system failure.”
Howard claims the information came from a “0-6” National Guard personnel. colonel. said Tori Robinson, Chief Marketing Officer at Aerial Recovery.[t]This was secondhand information I heard from a National Guard colonel. (Related: Did Iran conduct the nuclear test that caused the earthquake?)
“The unit was never shared or discussed and was talked about as such on the podcast,” Robinson said.
Robinson later contacted Howard to “Check Your Fact.” Howard told Check Your Facts in a phone interview that he stands by his claims and said the person who gave him the information was at the airport during Harris’ Oct. 5 visit.
Howard received the Instagram message on October 6th. Howard later told Check Your Facts in a text message that the person reaffirmed her original claim.
Parks said there was no connection between Harris’ visit and the C-17s being loaded at the time, saying they load C-17s “every day.” daily caller reported “Said a person familiar with the situation.” [them] The vice president’s visit did not disrupt the National Guard’s existing plans to load supplies onto planes for distribution to those in need. ” (Disclaimer: The Daily Caller is a sister website to Check Your Fact. We are editorially independent of each other. )
The C-17 is being used to deliver supplies to parts of North Carolina affected by Hurricane Helen, and on October 7 press release “The 145th AW completed four C-17 missions and delivered 228 pallets representing 50,000 pounds of miscellaneous supplies and more than 400,000 pounds of water, ready-to-eat meals, and medical supplies.”
Check Your Fact has reached out to the White House and the Vice President’s Office for comment.
