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
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi survived the helicopter crash and is on his way to Tabriz.
Fact
Iran’s president died in a helicopter crash on May 20 and thousands of Iranians have gathered in Tabriz to mourn his death.
A video claiming that Iran’s President survived the helicopter crash that occurred in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province on May 10 (Sunday) is going viral on TikTok. The video is being circulated at a time when condolences have been pouring in from leaders around the world following the news of the death of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in a helicopter crash.
Against this backdrop, TikTok user @suleiman.inuwa0 posted a video showing an image of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi disembarking from a helicopter. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Iran’s President survived the helicopter crash and is en route to Tabriz in the presidential motorcade.”
The video posted on May 20 has garnered 3822 likes, 268 users have shared it and 1622 users have commented on it.
The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /verification
To check the veracity of the claim made in the viral video, Newscheker ran a search on Google by using relevant keywords and found several news articles reports published on major international news outlets.
We checked an article, dated May 21, 2024, published on Guardian online which reported that the bodies of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and other victims of Sunday’s helicopter crash were airlifted to Teharan before a state ceremony slated for Wednesday.
On checking another article, dated May 20, published on CNN, reported that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed Sunday, along with his foreign minister, in a helicopter crash in Iran’s remote northwest.
Further, we took a key frame of the image carried in the viral video and conducted a reverse search on it. The search led us to several articles carrying the image resembling the viral video. We noticed that the chopper from which President Raisi was getting off didn’t match the chopper that crashed on Sunday. And most of the articles carrying the image resembling the image in viral video hadn’t attributed the image source.
On checking a post on X (formerly Twitter) from a verified handle named Mintel World, we found that the post about the crash carried an image matching the viral video and reported about the crash of a helicopter with the Iranian President on board. The post, however, noted that the image carried in the post is old.
Thus, our findings clearly show that the claim made in the viral video is misleading, Iran’s President died in a chopper crash in Iran’s remote northwest.
Conclusion
No, Iran’s President didn’t survive the helicopter crash. He, along with his foreign minister, was killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
Result: False
Sources
Mintel World /Twitter, May 20, 2024
The Guardian, May 22, 2024
CNN, May 20, 2024
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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.
