This video shows a Eurofighter plane crashing off the coast of Italy during an airshow in 2017

This article is more than one year old.
Published on June 23, 2020 at 04:00
2 min read
By AFP India

Footage of a fighter plane crashing in the ocean has been viewed tens of thousands of times on Facebook alongside claims that the video shows an Indian fighter plane crashing off the coast of Karachi, a major coastal city in Pakistan, in June 2020. The claim is false; the video in fact shows an Italian military Eurofighter plane crashing off the coast of Italy during an airshow in September 2017.

The video has been viewed over 31,000 times since it was published on Facebook here on June 10, 2020.

Screenshot of misleading Facebook post

The post’s caption reads: “#Flash: Indian Air Force Plane Crashed Near Karachi Inside Indian Territory. Confirmation Awaited!”

The video was published as reports of Indian fighter jets flying over Karachi spread widely online, as reported by Pakistani media here and here. Asia News International, a leading Indian news agency, reported on the speculation here and cited anonymous Indian Air Force sources who denied involvement.

The footage of the crashing fighter plane was also shared alongside similar claims on Facebook here, here and here.

However, the claim is false.

In the last three seconds of the video, onlookers using Italian expletives can be heard.

Subsequent keyword Google searches found that the footage in fact shows a Italian Air Force Eurofighter plane crashing off the Italian coast in 2017.

The same footage was published on YouTube here on April 28, 2020. The video’s caption reads: “EuroFighter Crashes Into Sea 2017 Italy”.

The clip shared in the misleading Facebook post can be seen from 4:57 to 5:19 in the YouTube video.

Further searches found that the fatal crash occurred during an Italian Air Force airshow on September 24, 2017.

Several other videos from the airshow showing the same crash from different angles were also published online, for example here and here.

On September 25, 2017, the Italian Air Force confirmed it was investigating the cause of the crash and offered condolences to the pilot’s family in Twitter statements here and here.

The fatal accident was also widely reported on in international media; for example the Indian television channel NDTV here and the UK newspaper The Telegraph here.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail