2016 Dubai Plane Crash Photo Passed Off As Abu Dhabi Drone Strike

An old photo showing a plane engulfed with smoke after it crash landed at the Dubai International airport in 2016 is being shared with the false claim that it is from the recent drone attack in Abu Dhabi on January 17, 2021. The photo has been morphed with the three drones edited into the image to falsely link it to the recent attack.

The viral photo shows a plane engulfed with smoke and a few vehicles around it, while at the top left side we can see three drones hovering.

On January 17, there was a suspected drone attack on three petroleum tankers in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, which left three persons — two Indians and a Pakistani national. Later, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack warning that "the UAE is an unsafe state as long as its aggressive escalation against Yemen continues."

The viral photo was shared widely on social media falsely linking it to the attack. The photo was shared on Twitter with the caption, "The world has 2 accept & all the Islamic countries have to accept their is terrorism & its related to one religion the most unless all the countries accept it together, Terrorists are going to attack no matter if its a Islamic country or not #UAE #AbuDhabiDroneAttack #DroneAttack"

Click here to view

Click here to view

Also Read: Old Photo Of A Gas Pipeline From Germany Peddled As Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh

FACT-CHECK

BOOM found that the viral photo is from August 2016 when an Emirates airline flight had crash landed at the Dubai international airport.

A reverse image search for the viral photo showed news reports from August 2016 on the incident which had carried the same photo. However we cannot see any drones in the original photo or visuals which shows that it has been edited into the original photo

An Emirates flight that originated in Kerala crash-landed in Dubai International Airport, but all the 300 people on board were safely evacuated, the Dubai government said, with Emirates also confirming the news reported Times Of India on August 3, 2016. We can see the same viral photo in this news report.

We can see the same plane engulfed in smoke in these visuals uploaded by Times Now on August 3, 2016.

A comparison of the viral photo and the original photo carried in the 2016 news reports on the plane crash show both are the same and the drones at the top left have been edited into the original photo.