Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
Claim
Video shows August 7 Air Dynasty Helicopter crash in Nuwakot.
Fact
Video shows the 2014 crash of a Mil Mi-8 Hip during a Russian Show.
A video allegedly showing the moment when an Air Dynasty Helicopter crashed in Suryachaur of Nuwakot district on August 7 is going viral on TikTok.
All five people on board an Eurocopter AS350 were killed when it crashed Wednesday in the mountains just northwest of Kathmandu. The chopper had lost contact with the tower just three minutes after take-off.
Against this backdrop, TikTok user @thakuri_maha_raja_2044 posted a video with two frames. One of the frames shows a helicopter suddenly crashing into the ground and bursting into flames. The second frame shows a photo of an Air Dynasty helicopter. Text written in between the frames reads, “Sad news, five people died when a helicopter crashed at Nuwakot district’s Suryachaur. All five people were charred to death. Who can say when an accident will happen?”
The video posted on August 8 has garnered 22.8k likes, 1445 users have shared it and 781 users have commented until the time of publishing this article. The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the authenticity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker split the video into several key-frames and ran reverse searches on them. A reverse search on Google led us to an article, dated September 7, 2014, published on Military.com online about the crash of Mil Mi-8 Hip utility helicopter during a Russian air show. The article also carried a photo and a video whose frame resembled the viral video.
On checking the video, we found that the video frame from 1.17-minute-onwards exactly matched the viral video. The article read that the chopper belonging to the Russian “Panh Helicopters” air company crashed during an international hydro air show, killing two crew members and badly injuring another one.
Further, we found an article, dated September 5, 2014, regarding the crash of a Russian Helicopter during an air show, published on the aviationist website. We found that the photo carried in the article resembled frames on the viral video.
We also found a video, dated September 5, 2014, and published on the YouTube channel named MsAndronis. The video frame exactly matched the viral video.
Thus, our findings clearly show that the footage carried in the viral video has nothing to do with the August 7 crash of an Air Dynasty helicopter in Nuwakot.
Conclusion
No, the footage carried in the viral video is not related to the Air Dynasty helicopter in Nuwakot. The viral video actually shows a crash of a Mil Mi-8 Hip during a Russian Show in 2014.
Result: False
Sources
Military.com Sept 8, 2014
MsAndronis/YouTube, Sept 5, 2014
The Avationist, Sept 5, 2014
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
