In August 2025, a Facebook user who said he was a former Canadian Airlines pilot claimed that U.S. President Donald Trump's plane flew to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's island at least 37 times.
Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, owned the Great St. James and Little St. James islands, part of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Prosecutors claimed Epstein trafficked underage girls to Little St. James to conceal the abuse of his victims.
However, we found no evidence that the claim about Trump's plane flying to Little St. James was true. We could not verify that the Facebook user who made the claim actually worked for Canadian Airlines, a carrier that Air Canada acquired in 2001. Alongside the claim, the Facebook user shared a picture of himself wearing what appeared to be a pilot's costume from the online retailer Amazon.
Reporting about Little St. James found that guests accessed the island either by boat or helicopter because it didn't have an airstrip, further discrediting the claim that any of Trump or his businesses' planes would have flown to or landed there.
Trump said in January 2025 that he never visited Epstein's island.
In August 2025, a claim (archived) circulated online, reportedly made by a retired Canadian Airlines pilot, that U.S. President Donald Trump's plane flew to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's island at least 37 times.
Tom Crosby, the Facebook user who first made the claim on Aug. 6, 2025, wrote:
I dont know, but every flight that flies is tracked by ATS. Donald Trump's plane flew to Epstein's island at least 37 times, tracked on radar. You're welcome. All flights anywhere are saved for ten years or more. Retired pilot, Canadian Airlines First Officer Tom Crosby
(Facebook user Tom Crosby)
The claim was popular on Facebook (archived). It also circulated on X (archived), Threads (archived) and Bluesky (archived). Snopes readers wrote in asking if the claim was true.
However, we found no evidence to prove Crosby's claim and further research shed doubt on his alleged credentials. Commenters on Crosby's post pointed out that the pin he wore in the attached photo did not look like one belonging to Canadian Airlines, a carrier that Air Canada acquired in 2001. Rather, the pin appeared to come from a pilot's costume from the online retailer Amazon, which also included a white shirt with epaulets like the one Crosby wore.
Commenters also asked for more proof of Crosby's claim, which we also did not find reported in reputable news sources (archived, archived, archived, archived). The claim would have been widely reported if true. Crosby claimed "All flights anywhere are saved for ten years or more," a statement we found difficult to stand up.
We reached out to Crosby to ask for evidence of his claim and former employment with Canadian Airlines. We also reached out to Air Canada to attempt to verify Crosby's claimed former employment. We reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the government agency that regulates civil aviation in the U.S., to verify Crosby's claims about flight record retention. We await replies to our queries.
Trump said in January 2025 he never visited Epstein's island, which prosecutors alleged the financier used to conceal the sex trafficking and abuse of underage victims. Epstein owned the Great St. James and Little St. James islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands before his death in 2019. He used Little St. James to entertain prominent guests from fields spanning politics, entertainment and business and had reportedly intended to develop Great St. James with homes and other amenities.
Crosby's claim departed from reality
Upon inspection, elements of Crosby's claim appeared to discredit the idea that flight records existed to prove that "Donald Trump's plane" flew to Little St. James Island 37 times.
Firstly, the Trump Organization owns multiple planes and helicopters. Trump bought a Boeing 727 in 1997 that had previously flown as part of Trump Shuttle, Trump's short-lived airline. He then replaced the 727 in 2011 with the current Trump Force One. The Trump Organization also owned a Cessna Citation X that it sold in May 2024. Crosby did not specify which aircraft his claim referred to. Additionally, Little St. James Island does not have an airstrip. Rather, an investigation into visitors to the island by the tech magazine WIRED in 2024 found that people arrived on the island either by helicopter or boat after flying to nearby St. Thomas.
It was not possible to prove Crosby's secondary claim about "all flights anywhere" being saved for "ten years or more." Our research found the Department of Transportation required "Certificated air carriers," meaning carriers licensed by the DOT to carry passengers or cargo to retain "System report of airplane movements" for just three years. We did not find specific retention policies for private jets outside records relating to maintenance. "All flights anywhere" was also an extremely broad statement, as individual countries have individual agencies regulating air traffic and record retention.
Live data about the movement of private jets is generally public because the aircraft rely on public systems like air traffic control, lights and runways to operate. Some flight tracking sites combine publicly available data with (sometimes) private data about the ownership of private aircraft to track celebrity jets. However, it was unclear at the time of this writing how long the FAA, the agency that facilitates the collection of this data, retained it.
Originator of claim followed 'anti-Trump' super PAC
Though our investigation found no evidence to support Crosby's claim, the profile that posted it appeared to be genuine, meaning it belonged to a real person as opposed to AI slop accounts that spread provably false claims from anonymous platforms.
Crosby previously posted (archived) pictures of himself that showed the same person in the Aug. 6 photo. The account also tagged friends and family members in posts and posted consistently about the same hobbies — usually signs that a real person is behind an account.
Crosby made roughly the same claim multiple times (archived, archived) on Aug. 6, based on local time in Regina, Saskatchewan, where his Facebook profile said he was based. On July 13, Crosby made a similar claim (archived) that "We also have every flight log or boat that went to Epstein's island." Crosby posted these claims on various groups related to the Meidas Touch News Network, an independent network that described itself as "pro-democracy." The network grew out of a super PAC that previously supported former U.S. President Joe Biden's campaign.
On Feb. 15, 2025, Crosby posted (archived) that he was the "webmaster of the Meidas Touch news network." Crosby was an administrator of at least two Facebook groups related to the Meidas Touch News Network. Rolling Stone described Meidas Touch in 2021 as "anti-Trump."
In sum …
Though speculation continues to surround Epstein and Little St. James island, we found no evidence of the specific claim that "Donald Trump's plane" flew to Little St. James Island 37 times.
We found no evidence that Tom Crosby, who posted the claim on pages related to the "anti-Trump" news network Meidas Touch, was actually employed by Canadian Airlines as he claimed in his post. Crosby wore a pin that was identical to one found in a pilot's costume sold by Amazon in an image accompanying the claim.
Though we do not have primary evidence in the form of flight logs for Trump's plane at the time, we do know that planes could not land on Little St. James but rather landed on nearby St. Thomas. Whether Trump was on board or not, his plane could not have landed on Little St. James Island, making 37 flights to that destination improbable.
Trump said in January 2025 that he had never visited Epstein's island. There had been no public evidence to the contrary at the time of this writing.
Sources:
"14 CFR § 249.20 - Preservation of Records by Certificated Air Carriers." LII / Legal Information Institute, https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/249.20. Accessed 8 Aug. 2025.
14 CFR 91.417 -- Maintenance Records. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/part-91/section-91.417. Accessed 8 Aug. 2025.
"About Us." MeidasTouch News, https://meidasnews.com/page/about-us. Accessed 8 Aug. 2025.
BINQILIN Pilot Captain Costume Kit Aviator Glasses Badge Hat & Tie Set Pilot Dress up Accessory Set : Amazon.Co.Uk: Toys & Games. https://www.amazon.co.uk/BINQILIN-Captain-Costume-Aviator-Accessory/dp/B0BYMZBC14. Accessed 8 Aug. 2025.
"Boeing 727 VP-BDJ: The Original Trump Force One." MotoArt PlaneTags, 14 Jun. 2019, https://planetags.com/blogs/planetags-blog/boeing-727-vp-bdj-the-original-trump-force-one.
Hettena, Seth. "The Trouble With MeidasTouch." Rolling Stone, 8 Apr. 2021, https://archive.ph/yrlnb#selection-1495.0-1498.0.
"Jeffrey Epstein's Private Islands Put up for Sale for $125m." BBC News, 24 Mar. 2022. www.bbc.co.uk, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60856925.
Jones, Michael Grabell, Sebastian. "Off the Radar: Private Planes Hidden From Public View." ProPublica, 8 Apr. 2010, https://www.propublica.org/article/off-the-radar-private-planes-hidden-from-public-view-040810.
Shalal, Andrea, and Nandita Bose. "Trump Says He Turned down Invitation to Epstein's Island." Reuters, 29 Jul. 2025. www.reuters.com, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-he-turned-down-invitation-epsteins-island-2025-07-28/.
Shepardson, David. "FAA Moves to Protect Aircraft Owners Private Information." Reuters, 28 Mar. 2025. www.reuters.com, https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/faa-moves-protect-aircraft-owners-private-information-2025-03-28/.
Thompson, Polly. "Trump Seemingly Sold One of His Private Jets to a Major Republican Donor." Business Insider, 30 May 2024, https://archive.ph/Xtr8D#selection-1551.0-1564.0.
WIRED. "We Tracked Every Visitor to Epstein Island | WIRED." YouTube, 22 Nov. 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjPHq-Ez0nc&t=141s.
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