Repatriation flight video falsely shared as evidence of staged hantavirus crisis
- Published on May 27, 2026 at 08:58
- 3 min read
- By Ara EUGENIO, Lucía DIAZ, AFP Philippines, AFP Spain
Video showing passengers of a hantavirus stricken ship preparing to board a repatriation flight has been seized on by social media users falsely claiming the presence of an individual without protective gear is proof the outbreak was staged. Health authorities in Spain, where the clip was filmed, told AFP the man is likely an airport worker who would not have had direct contact with the evacuated passengers. Although the virus strain found aboard the MV Hondius can spread between humans, transmission is associated with close and prolonged contact.
"Man accidentally walks into the scene while they are filming for Hontavirus (sic)," says the caption of a May 13 X video, shared more than 37,000 times.
It shows people dressed in white protective equipment being sprayed down by another person wearing orange protective gear near the steps of an aeroplane.
The clip also punches in to focus on a man in the foreground, a few metres away from the other people, who does not appear to be wearing any protective equipment except for a pair of blue gloves.
Similar posts circulated across social media after a deadly outbreak of hantavirus -- a rare rodent-borne virus for which no vaccines or specific treatments exist -- aboard the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius, which departed from Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1 (archived link).
The ship sailed through remote islands in the South Atlantic Ocean before heading north to Cape Verde, then Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands, where passengers were evacuated.
Twelve suspected and confirmed cases have been reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), including three deaths (archived link). No deaths have been reported since May 2.
While the outbreak has sparked international alarm, the WHO has downplayed the danger and insisted "the risk to the rest of the world is low" (archived link).
The circulating posts betray a lack of understanding of how the disease can spread, and the video shared by these posts corresponds to news footage of the complex repatriation operation carried out in Tenerife.
No close, direct contact
A combination of reverse image and keyword searches on Google found that the circulating clip was taken from a video published by Televisión Canaria, the regional public broadcaster of Spain’s Canary Islands, on YouTube on May 10 (archived link)).
The falsely shared clip has been mirrored from the Televisión Canaria footage.
"Passengers of the Hondius, the cruise ship affected by hantavirus, at Tenerife Sur Airport", says its Spanish-language title.
The video's description says it shows the first 14 Spanish passengers arriving on the tarmac before their transfer to a military hospital in Madrid.
A spokesperson for Spain’s Health Ministry told AFP on May 22 that the man seen in the foreground, not dressed in protective gear, is most likely an airport worker.
"People who were not going to be in close, direct contact with the passengers who disembarked from the cruise ship were not required to wear full protective (gear), but only the protective elements necessary for the type of contact they might have with contaminated surfaces (mask and gloves)," the spokesperson said.
Humans are mainly infected with the hantavirus by inhaling aerosols contaminated by the saliva, droppings or urine of animals or through direct contact with faeces, or via bites or scratches (archived link).
The Andes virus found aboard the Hondius is the only strain for which there are confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission, but these cases have been associated with close and prolonged contact -- particularly among household members or intimate partners (archived link).
The Spanish health ministry spokesperson added that the people seen in the background are the ship's passengers.
"Once they put on the white protective suits, they are disinfected by the operational staff (wearing orange protective suits) to eliminate any contamination that might be present on the protective equipment, before boarding the plane."
Repatriation operation
Photos taken by an AFP journalist show the same events as seen in the falsely shared video, with health staff in orange suits managing evacuees in white protective suits as they board a Spanish Air Force plane.
AFP video journalist Gaspard Flamand, who covered the operation, said he saw no evidence of simulated events on the Tenerife airport tarmac.
"This scene was real and not staged! It was like this for two days with all the passengers," he said on May 25.
The hantavirus outbreak has reawakened dormant conspiracy theories about health crises, including claims debunked by AFP about evacuations being staged and involved crisis actors.
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