Clip shows footage from inside Japan Airlines plane after collision in January 2024, not before deadly Jeju Air crash

Published on January 3, 2025 at 09:35
3 min read
By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines

After a Jeju Air flight crash-landed and burst into flames at a South Korean airport, killing 179 people onboard, an old video was shared in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed footage from inside the passenger cabin. The clip in fact shows the inside of a Japan Airlines flight after it collided with a coast guard aircraft in January 2024; all the passengers managed to escape before the plane was engulfed in flames.

"Video on board before crash Jeju air fire broke out," reads superimposed text on a Facebook reel shared on December 30, 2024.

The clip appears to show smoke illuminated by flames coming off an aeroplane, filmed through the plane's window.

It surfaced hours after a Jeju Air flight carrying 181 passengers and crew from Thailand to South Korea on December 29 belly-landed before slamming into a barrier at the Muan airport in southwest South Korea, killing all aboard except two flight attendants (archived link).

The exact cause of the crash is still unknown, but investigators have pointed to a bird strike, faulty landing gear, and an installation at the end of the runway that the plane struck as possible issues.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on January 2, 2025

The clip racked up 250,000 views and was also shared alongside similar claims on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.

Comments on the video suggest some users believed it showed footage from inside the Jeju Air flight.

"I can imagine how frightened the people on board were feeling. So devastating and so helpless," one user wrote.

Another said: "Such a heart-breaking moment."

The video, however, shows footage from a different aviation accident that occurred a year earlier.

Japan plane collision

Reverse image searches on Google led to the same footage published by video licensing agency Newsflare on January 2, 2024 (archived link).

"The video, filmed by passenger Jonas Deibe, shows an orange glow from the flames engulfing the plane and smoke inside the aircraft," read its description.

"The Japan Airlines plane collided with a coast guard aircraft when it landed at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Tuesday."

All but one of the six people on the smaller coast guard plane were killed in the collision, but all 379 Japan Airlines passengers and crew escaped down emergency slides minutes before the jet was engulfed in flames (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (left) and the Newsflare video (right):

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (left) and the Newsflare video (right)

US-based news outlet NBC 6 South Florida and British media agency South West News Service (SWNS) also published the same video here and here in January 2024 (archived here and here).

AFP previously debunked a false claim that a photo of the Japan Airlines flight's burnt out husk showed the wreckage of the Jeju Air jet here.

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