Plane Crashes

Did a California aquarium collapse, killing 50 people, as was claimed in a viral Instagram reel? No, that's not true: A disaster of that magnitude and novelty would have been a worldwide news story and there is no record of such an event in news publications in or out of California. The Instagram account that posted the video consists of…

Does a viral image show the site of the July 21, 2025, military training plane crash in Dhaka, Bangladesh? No, that's not true: The social media image contradicted what was shown in footage and photographs published by credible media outlets. Authentic visual materials showed that most of the plane's fuselage was obscured from cameras by the debris. The claim appeared…

Does a viral video show a July 13, 2025, plane crash at London Southend Airport? No, that's not true: The footage predates it. It captures an airshow in South Africa that resulted in one plane hitting the ground and killing the pilot. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on July 13, 2025. It opened: The…

Was the plane that crashed in the parking lot of a retirement facility near the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Airport a "modified Cessna Golden Eagle" registered to a "shell company in Delaware" named Echelon Air Logistics? No, that's not true: The plane that crashed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, March 9, 2025, was a Beechcraft A36TC with the registration number N347M. This…

Was the explosion near Roosevelt Mall in Philadelphia on January 31, 2025, not caused by an airplane crash but by a missile or comet? No, that's not true: The Federal Aviation Administration and multiple news outlets confirmed that the incident involved an aircraft. Global flight tracker Flight Radar 24 said the aircraft fell vertically at high speed. Other video angles…

Did CNN report the January 29, 2025, plane crash in the Washington, D.C., area hours before it occurred? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the news outlet refuted the claim. A Google spokesperson said sometimes the timestamps in search results may be wrong. CNN published and aired the news for the first time roughly 40 minutes after the crash…

Did a Black Hawk helicopter fail to respond to warnings seconds before colliding with a civilian airliner that was preparing to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on January 29, 2025? No, that's not true: Air traffic control audio archives show the helicopter crew acknowledged two advisories from air traffic controllers to avoid the oncoming aircraft. Transportation Secretary Sean…

Does a video show a "drone down" in New Jersey? No, that's not true: This footage shows the wreckage of a small plane that crashed on Interstate 684 in Greenwich, Connecticut, on December 12, 2024. There were two people on board the plane, but only the pilot survived. The video appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on December…

Is an image of a catastrophic plane crash on a bridge authentic? No, that's not true: The image is a digital art creation by Canadian graphic designer Steve McGhee. The original piece of art titled "All Is Lost - Redux" was altered to make it harder to trace its origin through a reverse image search. The claim appeared in a…

Does an image on social media show the helicopter crash that killed several government officials including Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi? No, that's not true: This image was created using digital editing tools and does not depict a real scene. A 2012 Alamy stock photo shows this helicopter fully operational, conducting aerial inspections of a high voltage grid in Italy. According…