QAnon Wildly Speculate Over Recent European Billionaire's Helicopter Deaths
Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory have spun wild claims suggesting that the deaths of two European billionaires in separate helicopter crashes this month are somehow connected.
On Saturday, Petr Kellner, 56, who was the Czech Republic's richest person with an estimated net worth of more than $17 billion, was among five people who died in a crash in Alaska on Saturday, March 27.
The death of Keller, who helped set up the Czech investment company PPF Group in 1991, occurred weeks after French politician and billionaire Olivier Dassault also died in a helicopter crash in Normandy, France, on March 7.
Despite the two victims having no connection other than being billionaires who died in helicopter crashes thousands of miles apart from each other during the same month, followers of QAnon still suggested there may be some underhanded reasoning behind their deaths while falsely suggesting they are a part of the high-profile cabal of devil-worshipping pedophiles.
"2 billionaires dead within a month of each other...weird right? Interesting maybe," one post on the "free speech" social network Gab said, which was shared on the site's QAnon page.
The post was reshared nearly 200 times on the site beloved by the far-right and conspiracy theorists banned from other social media sites.
"What is happening here? Faked deaths to escape justice? Are all the billionaires bunkering up for the second more deadly virus release? Something in my gut tells me this is going to turn out to be not good," one comment underneath the post reads.
"Helicopter (and plane) crashes are symbolic knock-off tools for the cabal. See Kobe Bryant as an example," another added.
On encrypted messaging service Telegram, the QAnon channel [QDrops] [8Bakes] [Crumbs] [Covfefe], which has more than 45,000 subscribers, speculated whether Kellner's death is proof that the radical movement is forming in the Czech Republic
"Richest Czech billionaire died in Alaska in helicopter crash. He was Chinese backed. Something is happening WW. Czech Anon here," the message read.
Followers of QAnon often cite wildly distorted interpretations of world events as proof their beliefs are coming into fruition, including that the elite members of the Satanic pedophile ring will one day be rounded up and executed.
In this case, one Telegram channel with more than 208,000 followers claimed that an Instagram story a few weeks ago from Dan Scavino, the former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications under the Donald Trump administration, can be linked to Kellner's death.
The video that Scavino posted shows three Alaskan malamutes being pulled through snow on tires.
The influential QAnon account notes that the three tires are the colors red, white and blue—the same colors of the Russian flag.
"March 8: Scavino posts Insta Story of Alaskan malamutes being pulled through snow in Russia red white and blue," the post on Monday read.
"March 27: Czech's richest man (Petr Kellner) known for his financial dealings with Russian oligarchs is killed by helicopter crash while skiing in Alaska."
Other QAnon supporters also noted how red, blue and white are the same colors and the Czech flag, and suggested that the cute video of the three dogs posted by Scavino was a coded message predicted Kellner's death.
While PPF is known to control telecoms firms which are active in markets including Russia and Kellner is a friend of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, there is no proof to suggest that this had anything to do with his accident.
