Video of helicopter downed in Syria falsely linked to US rescue mission in Iran
- Published on April 16, 2026 at 14:29
- 2 min read
- By AFP Middle East & North Africa
- Translation and adaptation Mike YAMBO, AFP Kenya
In early April 2026, Iran claimed to have destroyed four US military aircraft, including two Black Hawk helicopters involved in a rescue mission for a missing fighter pilot. However, posts claiming to show footage of one of the helicopters in flames over Iran are false. The footage dates back to February 2020 and shows a helicopter downed in Syria.
“The moment an American Black Hawk helicopter was struck by an Iranian heat-seeking missile,” reads the caption of a Facebook post published in Nigeria on April 6, 2026, and shared more than 100 times.
The post includes a 50-second clip of a helicopter exploding and falling from the sky.
The claim was also published in other languages, including Arabic.
On April 3, a US F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down over Iran, making it the first US fighter jet to go down since the start of the ongoing Middle East war (archived here).
Two Black Hawk helicopters, which were deployed in a search-and-rescue mission for the fighter jet's crew, were struck by Iranian fire but returned to base, although some crew members were injured (archived here).
US President Donald Trump had earlier announced the recovery of the second missing pilot since the crash, in what he said was “one of the most daring search and rescue operations in US history” (archived here).
However, the video circulating as evidence of the downing of the American fighter jet predates the current Middle East war.
Syrian military helicopter
AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches using keyframes from the clip, which led to a longer version of the clip published by Euronews on February 11, 2020 (archived here).
“Syrian regime helicopter shot down in Idlib, two pilots killed,” reads the video's title in Arabic.
According to the report, the military helicopter was shot down near the village of Qaminas, south of Idlib city, after being targeted by a missile fired by Turkish forces, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and an AFP correspondent (archived here).
The incident was reported by other global media outlets, including AFP, which distributed photos and videos of the crash (archived here and here).
AFP Fact Check originally debunked the claim in Arabic here, while the footage has been shared out of context on previous occasions here.
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