President Donald Trump said he “‘didn’t have time’ to meet the families of the men, women and children who tragically died in the plane crash.”

When President Donald Trump touched down in New Orleans for the Super Bowl, he made history as the first sitting president to attend the NFL’s biggest game. But even before the Feb. 9 game at the Caesars Superdome, claims criticizing his attendance had spread online.

“Friendly reminder that Donald Trump will be the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl,” a Feb. 5 Threads post said. “YET ‘didn’t have time’ to meet the families of the men, women and children who tragically died in the plane crash.”

The post is correct about Trump bucking tradition; presidents have typically not attended the Super Bowl in person. The winners are invited to the White House for a victory celebration. However, the claim that Trump said he “didn’t have time” to meet plane crash victims’ families isn’t accurate. In fact, he said the opposite.

The Threads post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Threads and Instagram.)

A few U.S. plane crashes occurred in the days before the Super Bowl, but the Threads post is likely referring to the Jan. 29 midair collision of an American Airlines regional plane and Black Hawk Army helicopter over the Potomac River in the Washington, D.C. area, killing all 67 people aboard both aircrafts. Trump has made public comments about visiting the victims’ families.

After the midair collision, the passenger plane and helicopter broke apart into the frigid Potomac River. Divers retrieved bodies and wreckage from both aircrafts from the river near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. 

A reporter asked Trump Jan. 30 at the White House if he intended to visit the collision site. Trump responded: “I have a plan to visit, not the site. Because you tell me, what’s the site? The water? You want me to go swimming?”

The reporter also asked if he planned to meet first responders. Trump said: “I don’t have a plan to do that but I will be meeting with some people that were very badly hurt with their family member, obviously. I’ll be meeting with some of the families.”

We found no news reports about Trump meeting with victims’ families yet. Such meetings take planning and time to happen. While in New Orleans, Trump met victims, relatives and first responders of the New Year’s Day terror attack, which happened on the city’s famed Bourbon Street before his inauguration.

We rate the claim that Trump said he didn’t have time to meet victims’ families of the Washington plane crash False.
 

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.