After an Azerbaijan Airways aircraft crashed in Kazakhstan in December, killing 38 individuals, a video surfaced throughout social media in a number of languages alongside the declare it confirmed the moments earlier than the tragedy. The clip, which first circulated in information studies from September 2024 about an Air Algerie flight’s technical malfunction, was additionally falsely linked to South Korea’s deadliest aviation catastrophe on December 29 that killed 179 individuals. The aircraft seen within the video was in a position to return safely to the Algiers Worldwide Airport.
“The ultimate sounds heard on board flight J2-8243. Stunning information earlier than the brand new yr because of an Azerbaijan Airways crash in Kazakhstan,” learn a December 28, 2024 Thai-language put up on TikTok, the place it racked up 1.5 million views.
The video reveals passengers chanting an Islamic prayer in a aircraft with the oxygen masks deployed. A flight attendant in blue is seen strolling down the aisle.
It then cuts to footage of the wreckage of a aircraft, a memorial and folks saluting in a terminal.
Screenshot of the false TikTok put up, taken January 2, 2025
The put up surfaced after an Azerbaijan Airways Embraer 190 aircraft crash-landed on Christmas Day in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 individuals onboard (archived link).
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has demanded that Moscow admit it mistakenly fired on the aircraft because it tried to make a scheduled touchdown on the Grozny airport in Russia.
Russia has not confirmed that one in every of its air-defense missiles hit the aircraft, although President Vladimir Putin informed Aliyev in a cellphone name that the methods have been lively on the time and that he was sorry the incident came about in Russian airspace.
The identical declare linking the video to the Azerbaijan Airways crash additionally surfaced in different Fb posts from Thailand, Bangladesh and the Philippines.
It additionally surfaced in simplified Chinese social media posts that falsely claimed it confirmed the ultimate moments onboard a Jeju Air flight from Thailand that crashed in South Korea and killed all however two of the 181 individuals onboard (archived link).
The precise explanation for the Boeing 737-800 crash continues to be unknown, however investigators have pointed to a hen strike, defective touchdown gear and the runway barrier as doable points.
The footage in truth circulated months earlier than the 2 deadly aviation disasters, alongside studies of a technical malfunction that pressured an Air Algerie flight to show again to Algiers in September 2024.
Air Algerie flight
A reverse picture search on Google traced the video to a Fb post by Information Trafic Algerie, an Algerian site visitors info site, on September 23, 2024 (archived hyperlinks here and here).
The put up, written in Arabic, mentioned the video confirmed Air Algerie flight AH 3018, which skilled a technical malfunction on its approach to the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul.
“The flight captain determined to return to Houari Boumediene Worldwide Airport an hour after take-off as a precautionary measure to make sure the protection and safety of the passengers and crew,” learn a part of the Arabic-language put up.
Under is a screenshot comparability of the video within the false posts (left) and the video shared by Information Trafic Algerie (proper):
Screenshot comparability of the video within the false posts (left) and the video shared by Information Trafic Algerie (proper)
A screenshot of the video was additionally printed alongside a report in regards to the flight’s return to Algiers by native day by day Al Shorouk News on September 24, 2024 (archived link).
Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera additionally printed an identical video on its official YouTube channel on September 25, 2024, with chants of “Allahu Akbar (God is biggest)” heard from the 36-second mark (archived link).
The video’s description mentioned it reveals moments of panic skilled by passengers in an Algerian aircraft that skilled a technical malfunction, forcing it to make an emergency touchdown.
The remainder of the footage included within the circulating video is real — the clip of the Azerbaijan Airways wreck was printed by a number of information retailers, together with British newspaper the Telegraph (archived link).
It additionally included video of a memorial for victims of the crash, in addition to footage of a minute’s silence for the victims on the Baku Airport — the place the aircraft departed from — printed by AFP here (archived hyperlinks here and here).
