Old video of Italy airshow crash falsely linked to US pilots shootdown

"BREAKING Yemen has shot down a US F18! The Americans claimed the last two that were shot down by the Houthis were "friendly fire" incidents. GUESS NOT!," read an X post that shared the footage on December 23. 

The video -- shot horizontally -- shows a jet plunge down and smash into the sea.

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Screenshot of the false post, taken on December 30, 2024

The clip spread on X, Instagram and TikTok after two US Navy pilots were shot down over the Red Sea on December 22 in "an apparent case of friendly fire," the US military said (archived link). 

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels later said they had "targeted" the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman a day earlier in an operation that led to "shooting down an F-18 aircraft" and thwarting "American-British aggression" against Yemen.

United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said that both US pilots were recovered alive but "initial assessments indicate that one of the crew members sustained minor injuries".

This incident "was not the result of hostile fire, and a full investigation is underway," CENTCOM said.

Italian airshow crash

However, a reverse image search on Google found the video published in an article from September 2017 about a fatal airshow crash in Italy. 

According to the Irish Sun newspaper, pilot Gabriele Orlando was killed while attempting to pull off a loop-the-loop manoeuvre off the coast of Terracina, southeast of Rome (archived link).

The Italian Air Force said on September 24, 2017 it was investigating the cause of the crash and offered condolences to the pilot's family (archived links here and here). 

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video falsely shared on social media (left) and published by The Irish Sun (right):

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Screenshot comparison of the video falsely shared on social media (left) and published by The Irish Sun (right)

AFP confirmed the video was filmed off Terracina by comparing it to Google Maps images from the area.

A cluster of parasols and mountains in the background -- seen at the 13-second mark of the video -- match a geotagged photo on Google Maps of a beachside restaurant in the city called La Conchiglia (archived links here and here). 

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video from The Irish Sun (left) and the Google Maps photo, with similarities highlighted by AFP (right):

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Screenshot comparison of the video from The Irish Sun (left) and the Google Maps photo, with similarities highlighted by AFP (right)

Similar footage of the crash posted by Italian television channel Rai News shows a group of yellow parasols seen in the foreground (archived link).

Those parasols can be seen in another photo geotagged on Google Maps of the nearbyLido de Ulisse resort in Terracina (archived here and here). 

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Footage of the disaster previously made the rounds online in posts falsely identifying it as a plane crash in Pakistan.