Fact Check: Unrelated videos of airplane accidents falsely linked to Coonoor chopper crash
Post Coonoor crash, several videos of plane accidents are widely being shared on social media.
By Tejal Sinha Published on 9 Dec 2021 5:20 AM GMT
Hyderabad: Post Coonoor crash, several videos of plane accidents are widely being shared on social media.
It is being claimed that the videos are of the Coonoor helicopter crash that left Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and 12 others dead.
NewsMeter also received one of the videos on WhatsApp.
Several Twitter users had also shared different videos of plane crashes.
Fact Check
The claim is False.
Video 1:
NewsMeter began its investigation by performing a Google Reverse Image Search which led us to the Facebook page of Indian Military Photos. The page had posted a similar video on November 18, 2021, with a caption, "IAF personnel injured as Mi-17 helicopter makes forced landing in Arunachal Pradesh".
Video 2:
NewsMeter saw various Twitter users stating that the video is of an incident in Syria. Taking a cue from this, the team performed a keyword search which led us to a video uploaded on YouTube channel of 'The Telegraph on February 11, 2020'. The video news report had similar visuals as that of the ones in the viral videos.
"Videos circulating on social media on Tuesday appeared to show a Syrian air force helicopter being downed by rebels in the area of Nayrab in eastern Idlib, using ground-to-air missiles thought to have been supplied by Turkey in recent days. Turkey, which had been supporting and arming the opposition, sent in its own troops with tanks and heavy weaponry over the weekend in response to Syrian regime shelling of its observation points," reads the thumbnail.
"Rebels shoot down Syrian helicopter as fighting intensifies," reads the headline of the AP report on February 12, 2020. The report had also published a similar video.
"Rebels shot down a Syrian military helicopter in northern Syria, killing its crew members in a fiery crash, while the government kept up its relentless bombing campaign on the opposition-held region, with an airstrike in which seven civilians died, activists and news reports said. The violence in Idlib province came as government troops moved closer to capturing the last rebel-controlled section of a strategic highway linking southern and northern Syria, which would bring the road under the full control of President Bashar Assad's forces for the first time since 2012," reads the AP report.
It is therefore evident that the claim is False. Different unrelated videos are being linked to the helicopter crash that led to the demise of Bipin Rawat along with his wife and other staff.
