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Fact check: Video purporting to show helicopter crash in India was taken in Syria in 2020

McKenzie Sadeghi   | Paste BN

The claim: A video shows the helicopter crash that killed India’s top military official

As authorities investigate the cause of the Dec. 8 helicopter crash in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, that killed 13 people, including India’s military chief Gen. Bipin Rawat, a video purporting to show the accident has surfaced on social media.

“Indian Army helicopter crash carrying CDS General Shri Bipin Rawat Ji and other senior Army officials in Tamil Nadu,” reads the caption of a roughly one-minute Dec. 8 Facebook video, which shows a helicopter in flames falling from the sky. The post accumulated more than 700 shares in less than a week.

The same clip was shared alongside similar claims on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, where a video titled “Chief of Defense Staff Bipin Rawat Live Chopper Crash Video” generated more than 600,000 views.

But the captions are inaccurate. The footage was captured in Syria in 2020, and the claim has been previously debunked by independent fact-checking organizations in India.

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The Facebook and Instagram user who shared the video did not return requests for comment.

Video was taken in 2020

The video circulating online shows a Syrian military helicopter being shot down in Idlib, Syria, by Turkish-backed rebels on Feb. 11, 2020, according to several news reports.

“Syrian rebels claim to have shot down a government helicopter Tuesday in the country's northwest where Syrian troops are on the offensive in the last rebel stronghold, opposition activists said,” reads the caption of the video shared to YouTube by the Associated Press.

Other news outlets including The Telegraph and Mega News shared similar versions of the video captured at different angles. Photos of the crash were also published in news reports about the incident.

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Videos and photos showing the aftermath of the Dec. 8 helicopter crash that killed Rawat were published by BBC, The Associated Press and Asian News International.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that a video shows the helicopter crash that killed Rawat on Dec. 8. The footage shows a Syrian helicopter being shot down in February 2020 in Idlib. 

Our fact-check sources: 

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