A video of an Indian Air Force helicopter crash landing in Arunachal Pradesh on November 18, is being shared online falsely claiming it shows the fatal helicopter crash that killed India's Chief Of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and 12 others on Wednesday.
The video went viral as news started pouring in about the IAF helicopter Rawat was travelling in crashed in Coonoor area of Tamil Nadu, killing him, his wife Madhulika and 11 other members of his staff. General Rawat was appointed as India's first Chief of Defence Staff on December 30, 2019 and was on his way to speak at the Wellington Staff College when the crash occurred.
The IAF in a statement said only person survived the crash and has ordered an inquiry into the accident.
As news of the crash unfolded several old images and videos started circulating online.
The posts are being shared with captions in Hindi, English and Tamil all claiming that the video shows Rawat's chopper crashing.
The caption in Hindi translates to, "First video of the accident, the time when CDS Rawat was travelling in the helicopter"
(Original text in Hindi - दुर्घटना का पहला वीडियो वायरल सीडीएस विपिन रावत जब हेलीकॉप्टर में सवार थे)
FACT CHECK
BOOM ran a reverse image search on one of the key frames and found that the video is from November 18 when an IAF chopper crash landed in eastern Arunachal Pradesh.
A report in the Hindustan Times said, "An Mi-17 helicopter of the Indian Air Force (IAF) reportedly crash-landed in eastern Arunachal Pradesh with two pilots and three crew members on Thursday. The helicopter was carrying out an air maintenance sortie in the area when the incident took place."
We further found a tweet by news agency ANI with the same video.
ANI credited the video to a local from the area and said the chopper crash landed near a helipad and all crew members were safe having suffered only minor injuries.
Additionally, the visuals from the crash that killed General Rawat, shot by locals in the area and aired by several news outlets do not match the viral video. You can see some of the visuals here and here
