Thirty years ago, five people, including three high-level executives of Donald Trump’s casinos in Atlantic City, were killed in a horrendous helicopter crash in New Jersey. Among those killed were Stephen F. Hyde, 43. chief executive of Trump Casinos, Mark Grossinger Etess, 38, president and chief operating officer of the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Hotel, and Jonathan Benanav, 33, executive vice president of the Trump Plaza Casino Hotel. The American firebrand was the first one to hear about the crash, and called the three families to inform them.
In a later interview with CNN, Mr Trump claimed that he escaped “certain death” as he was supposed to be on the helicopter but changed his mind at the last minute.
He told CNN: “I was going to go from the standpoint that they said do ‘you want to come down with us?’
“I said: ‘I think so but maybe I am just too busy.’
“I was that close, it would have been like a 50-50 deal.”
However, in 2017 Netflix documentary “Trump: An American Dream”, Vice President of Trump Plaza Casino in Atlantic City, Jack O’Donnell, suggested that his claim was false.
Mr O’Donnell not only alleged that Mr Trump was never supposed to be on that helicopter, but he also claimed that he exploited the death of his three aides to boost his publicity.
He said: “I could sense that he was in a state of shock, in disbelief.
“The thing that winds up standing out to me, of course, he made the comment to me right then that he almost got on that helicopter.
“He said: ‘I could have been on that helicopter’.
“It was a charter, right?
“I mean, if Donald Trump was going to come to Atlantic City he would get on his own helicopter.
“And then of course, he said it in the press.”
Mr O’Donnell added: “It was interesting, shocking to some extent, it was a new piece of information about Donald Trump’s personality to me.”
Mr Trump’s former aide was not the only one to put forward such a claim, either.
According to Harry Hurt’s Trump biography “Lost Tycoon”, Mr Trump was asked to comment by reporters over the phone just hours after the incident.
Mr Hurt claims that, before answering, he muted the line and said to his staff: “You’re going to hate me for this, but I just can’t resist.
“I can get some publicity out of this.”