Video of aircraft scuttling shared with baseless 'Red Sea plane crash' claims

Published on June 4, 2025 at 04:18
Updated on June 4, 2025 at 05:37
3 min read
By Chayanit ITTHIPONGMAETEE, AFP Thailand

As Muslims began travelling to Mecca ahead of the annual hajj, an unrelated video of a plane being sunk to create an artificial reef surfaced in posts falsely claiming it showed an aircraft carrying hundreds of Mauritanian pilgrims plunging into the Red Sea. The plane was in fact submerged in 2019 to boost diving tourism in northwestern Turkey. Mauritania Airlines called the claim "baseless".

"A plane carrying Mauritanian pilgrims has killed 220 people after crashing in the Red Sea," a Facebook user wrote on May 28, 2025.

The 24-second clip shows an aircraft surrounded by boats as it slowly sinks below the water's surface.

Screemshot of the false Facebook post, taken May 30, 2025

The claim was shared by other Thai users, as well as in Burmese and Arabic posts. It surfaced as millions of Muslim pilgrims descended on the holy city of Mecca ahead of the annual Hajj, which begins on June 4 (archived links here and here).

However, there have not been any credible reports of a plane carrying pilgrims from Muslim-majority Mauritania crashing in May 2025.

In response, Mauritania Airlines issued a statement via its official Facebook page on May 27, 2025 (archived link).

The statement reads, in part: "Some foreign social media pages circulated malicious rumours about the crash of a plane carrying Mauritanian pilgrims off the Red Sea, which is baseless news."

The statement also said that all the three flights carrying Mauritanian pilgrims arrived safely in Saudi Arabia via flights on May 23, 24, and 25.

Old clip from Turkey

A reverse image search using one of the video's keyframes found an identical YouTube video published on July 18, 2019 (archived link).

The video's title reads, "Turkey Airbus A330 Sinking Ibrice 14 June 2019".

The YouTube video matches the false clip at the 2:05 mark.

Screenshot comparison between the false Facebook post (L) and the YouTube video

The video was also featured in reports by the BBC and Turkey's Anadolu Agency about a repurposed Airbus A330 plane that was sunk to create an artificial reef off the northwestern coast of Turkey (archived links here and here).

"The 65m (213ft) long aircraft was plunged 30m deep in the Aegean Sea off Ibrice Harbour in Edirne province," the BBC wrote.

The plane's livery belongs to a Turkish pipeline company, the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), which also supported the scuttling of the plane to create the artificial reef for tourism, according to the Anadolu report.

Screenshot of the YouTube video, with visual clues highlighted by AFP

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