This photo has been doctored to add a Cameroonian airline logo

This article is more than one year old.
Published on January 31, 2020 at 19:10
Updated on February 6, 2020 at 19:06
4 min read
By Monique NGO MAYAG

A photograph of a man using wooden steps to board a plane has been shared hundreds of times on Facebook since January 4. The logo on the side of the plane is that of Cameroonian airline Camair-Co. However, the picture has been photoshopped and was in fact taken in Congo-Brazzaville, a country Camair-Co doesn’t fly to.

Posts featuring the image have been shared hundreds of times on Facebook -- we’ve archived some of them here, here and here.

The image shows a man in a suit boarding a plane using a wooden stepladder. The Camair-Co logo is clearly visible on the side of the aircraft.

“Only in Africa,” said one post in Ghana-based Facebook page ‘Celebritiesbuzz.co News’, which has more than one million followers.

Another Facebook user shared the photo alongside the caption, “MORE CARPENTERS NEEDED AT CAMAIRCO,” claiming the airline was “in dire need” of workers following the production of a “ladder of death” at Yaoundé-Nsimalen International Airport in Cameroon’s capital.

“Welcome to Cameroon,” says another post by French comedian Dieudonné, which has been shared more than 350 times.

A screenshot of the doctored photograph posted on Facebook, taken on January 31, 2020

Social media users in Kenya shared a different version of the photograph, this time featuring a Kenya Airlines logo on the side of the plane.

“Even if there are problems, what is this?!” tweeted one user in Swahili.

A screenshot of the doctored photograph posted on Twitter, taken on February 6, 2020

However, both Camair-Co and Kenya Airlines denied the plane was one of theirs.

“It is not a Camair-Co plane,” a representative from Camair-Co told AFP via telephone. “The registration of the plane in the photograph doesn’t match our airline’s IATA code. The position of the logo on the photo does not correspond to our graphic charter”.

An IATA code is attributed to each airline by the International Air Transport Association. According to its website, the code for Camair-Co is QC.

“Unfortunately, AJY doesn’t seem to belong to any carrier we currently have registered,” an International Air Transport Association representative told AFP via email.

He added that the logo on the plane in the photograph was smaller than the logos on Camair-Co’s aircraft.

A photograph posted on Camair-Co's Facebook page on August 9, 2019 (left) and a screenshot of the doctored photo shared on Facebook, taken on February 6, 2020 (right)

Kenya Airways said on Twitter that the plane in the photograph was "not an aircraft belonging to or operated by @KenyaAirways".

AFP ran a keyword search on Facebook and found a post (in French) from August 4, 2019 by a passenger at Ewo airport in Congo-Brazzaville, which showed a photograph of the plane and wooden steps from a different angle.

“This morning, I was on a flight from Tac to Ewo (Cuvette-Ouest), but at Ewo airport, the ground technicians couldn’t find an appropriate staircase for passengers to get on and off the flight,” reads the caption.

“A carpenter had the ingenious idea of making a wooden staircase.”

The post features a photograph of the plane with a wooden staircase, taken from a different angle than the other pictures circulating on social media.

The plane bears the AJY code, but not the Camair-Co or Kenya Airlines logos seen in other posts.

AFP contacted Adrien Wayi Lewy, the man who posted these photographs on Facebook. He said the photos were his and sent us the original images.

AFP analysed the photographs using Metadata2Go, which confirmed that they were taken on July 30, 2019. The GPS position was indeed that of Ewo, in Congo-Brazzaville.

Analysis of a photograph sent to AFP by Adrien Wayi Lewy (left) and a screenshot of the doctored photo shared on Facebook, taken on January 31, 2020 (right)

Analysis of photographs sent to AFP by Adrien Wayi Lewy

Contacted by AFP, Chancelle Gangonno, head of marketing at Congo-Brazzaville’s airports authority AERCO, said that Camair-Co did not operate in the country.

“Camair-Co ceased activity in Congo on February 19, 2017,” she said via email.

Lewy told AFP the plane belonged to Trans Air Congo. In a Facebook post in January 2019, the airline said it had a plane with the registration code AJY.

AFP has contacted Trans Air Congo but has not yet received a reply.

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