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 post (archived here) on X on October 24, 2024. It said:
This isn't MOVIE, it's real life. Thread of horrific plane crashes caught on camera🧵 (Don`t open if you are scared of flying)
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Oct 28 18:17:11 2024 UTC)
A reverse image search using TinEye (archived here) sorted by oldest offered results with the oldest version having been uploaded on November 3, 2009, subsequent versions later that same month included filenames suggesting the illustration was created by Steve McGhee.
Lead Stories found a corresponding profile named Steve McGhee on behance.net (archived here) containing the same image used in the post, published on November 25, 2009. Behance.net describes itself as "the world's largest creative network for showcasing and discovering creative work."
From Steve McGhee's behance profile, Lead Stories found that the image used in the post is a cropped version of his original work (archived here), as his signature shows at the bottom left:
(Source: behance.com screenshot taken on Mon Oct 28 18:54:51 2024 UTC)
His signature was removed from the post making the claim, making it harder to trace by way of reverse image search, a common tactic employed by spreaders of falsehoods.
A reverse image search using Google Lens (archived here) of the original work, tilted "All Is Lost - Redux," did not bring up any credible results suggesting the event happened in real life.
At the time this was written, the claim had previously been reviewed by Snopes in 2022.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks concerning claims about plane crashes can be found here.
