Posts falsely claim image shows 2023 helicopter crash in Kenya’s Marsabit county

"A Police Chopper carrying 15 police officers crashes in Marsabit. 10 dead, others seriously injured (sic)," reads a Facebook post, which has generated more than 1,800 comments and 7,500 likes since it was published on July 13, 2023.

Image

Screenshot showing the false post, taken on July 19, 2023

A link within the post purportedly leads to a site featuring a video of the incident.

The image shows a blue and white helicopter lying on its side in dense foliage. The letters "ICE" are visible on the front of the aircraft.

The same claim was shared elsewhere on Facebook here and here as well as on Twitter.

But the photo does not show a crash in Kenya in July 2023.

Meru county crash

A reverse image search revealed the image has been online since June 2020 when it appeared in a Facebook post published by the Kenyan news site NTV (archived here).

The post included other pictures of the same helicopter and explained that the police chopper was ferrying a security team to Marsabit county when it crashed in Meru, resulting in injuries.

Local channel Citizen TV also used the image in a televised report about the incident, saying the officers were en route to broker peace between two warring communities in Marsabit when the helicopter crashed.

Kenya’s National Police Service (NPS) told AFP Fact Check that the claim on social media was false.

“There has been no police chopper accident recently in the country. The photo that is being shared on social media is old. It shows a chopper that crash-landed on June 13, 2020, in Meru,” the NPS said on July 19, 2023.

A link in one of the false posts leads to a Telegram chat group and not a video of the crash, as claimed.

The tactic of resurfacing old disaster photos on social media to drive people to other sites and social networks is also rife in Ethiopia. See here and here for examples of these debunks.