President Donald Trump was devastated in October 1989 when three of his senior executives were killed in a helicopter crash.
In a statement issued at the time, he said: “These were three amazing young men in their prime. No better human beings ever existed. We are deeply saddened by this devastating tragedy, and our hearts go out to their families.”
A day following the tragedy, United Press International revealed that Mr Trump was scheduled to be on the flight that day.
It read: “Sources said Trump himself was scheduled to be on the flight but decided at the last minute he was too busy to leave New York.”
Details of Mr Trump's last-minute decision to cancel the flight appeared in news reports and on the NY Daily News cover. News reports at the time either referenced Trump sources for the specifics of his near-death decision or just reported it as fact.
Mr Trump’s spokesman Dan Klores told the Philadelphia Inquirer in one report: “He really doesn't want to talk about it, but he was going to go to Atlantic City and he did change his mind.”
Mr Trump publicly spoke out about the incident in 1990, with the release of his book Trump: Surviving at the Top written along with journalist Charles Leerhsen.
“Then Steve, who was one of the hardest-working guys I ever met, said, 'Donald, we've got to run now. We've got to catch a helicopter,' I very casually look up and said, 'I'll see you guys over the weekend,'” Mr Trump says in his book.
He added: “For an instant, as they were walking out, I thought of going with them. I fly down to Atlantic City at least once a week, and I knew that if I made the forty-five-minute helicopter trip then, we could continue talking business on the way.
“But there was just too much to do in the office that day. As quickly as the idea had popped into my mind, I decided not to go. Instead, I just said goodbye and went back to reading reports and making phone calls.”
But several people have come forward to deny these claims since.
Are the claims true?
Former Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett shared that the rumor was a publicity stunt in his book Trump: The Greatest Show On Earth.
Mr Barrett said that Mr Trump “did not hesitate to use [the crash] for personal advantage”, adding: “He planted stories suggesting that he had almost boarded the chartered copter himself, though he’d never ridden to Atlantic City on one, trusting only his [personal] Puma [helicopter].”
Harry Hurt’s biography of Mr Trump Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump read: “Donald is still sitting in his office commiserating with some of his staff when he gets a call from yet another reporter. He switches on the speakerphone so that he can hear what the reporter is saying but puts on the mute button so the reporter cannot hear what is being said in the Trump Tower office.”
Hurt also claimed that Mr Trump needed to capitalise on the incident to gain publicity. Mr Trump is alleged to have said: “You're going to hate me for this but I just can't resist. I can get some publicity out of this.”
While speaking to a reporter about the incident, Mr Trump allegedly “releases the mute button on his speakerphone and informs the reporter, 'You know, I was going to go with them on that helicopter…' Donald goes on to confide that for some unexplained reason, he changed his mind and decided not to go”.
The same claim is made in another account, a book written in the 1990s by former president of the Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino, John R O'Donnell.
