Old image from Ukraine falsely linked to plane crash that killed Malawi’s vice president
- Published on June 18, 2024 at 09:37
- Updated on June 18, 2024 at 10:25
- 2 min read
- By Tendai DUBE, AFP South Africa
Copyright © AFP 2017-2024. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
“BREAKING NEWS: Malawi Vice President Saulos Chilima and 9 others confirmed dead in a plane crash,” reads an X post published on June 11, 2024.
The post includes a photograph of a plane crash with what appear to be soldiers in the background.
On June 11, 2024, Malawi's President Lazarus Chakwera confirmed that Chilima and eight others – one less than initially reported – died after his plane crashed in poor weather (archived here). Former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri was also on board. The next day searchers located the wreckage in a misty forest.
However, the picture in the post is unrelated to the events in Malawi.
Ukraine plane
A reverse image search of the picture showed it was originally taken in Ukraine in 2020 (archived here).
“Photo taken on Sept. 26, 2020, shows the crash site of a 26 military aircraft in Chuguev, Kharkiv region, Ukraine,” reads part of the caption. The photograph was taken by Sergey Starostenko for the Chinese news agency Xinhua.
On September 25, 2020, the An-26 military aircraft with 27 people on board crashed during a training flight while landing at an army base near Chuguev in Kharkiv region. One person survived.
Malawi crash
In his address to the Malawian people, Chakwera said: "The search and rescue team have found the aircraft ... completely destroyed with no survivors, as all passengers on board were killed on impact."
Photographs shared with AFP by a member of the military rescue team showed military personnel standing on a misty slope near debris bearing the registration number of the Malawi Army Air Wing Dornier 228-202K aircraft.
One of the images was published by Sky News here (archived here).
The military plane carrying Chilima, 51, and eight others disappeared after it failed to land in the northern city of Mzuzu due to bad weather and was told to return to the capital, Lilongwe (archived here).
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
