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Clip shows plane crash in Chile in 2024, predating LA wildfires | Fact check


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The claim: Video shows plane crashing while fighting California fires

A Jan. 10 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes a video showing a plane catching on fire and crashing on a roadway. 

“America California los angeles Fire plane crash (sic),” reads the caption on the post.

It was shared more than 200 times in four days. Another version of the claim spread widely on X.  

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Our rating: False

The video shows a plane crash in Chile in January 2024, predating the California wildfires by a year. 

Crash happened in Chile, not LA

The claim was made as crews continued to fight wildfires that have devastated the Los Angeles area. The blazes had killed at least 25 people as of Jan. 16. 

But the video in the post predates the California fires by a year. 

Al Jazeera posted the original video of a plane crash in Talca, Chile, in January 2024. Elements of the clip, including a billboard and a vehicle stopped on the side of the road, are the same as in the Facebook video, though the footage is flipped. The pilot killed in the crash was later identified as 58-year-old Fernando Solans Robles of Spain, according to the local government in Maule, Chile, which said Robles was fighting a forest fire. 

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In California, officials were investigating after an unauthorized drone crashed into firefighting aircraft in Los Angeles County on Jan. 9. No injuries were reported.

Paste BN has debunked an array of claims related to the California wildfires, including false assertions that the Los Angeles Police Department sought three supporters of President-elect Donald Trump as “persons of interest” in the fires, that an authentic image showed a car and mansions burned during the fires and that a video showed a man saving a bunny during the 2025 fires. 

Paste BN reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Full Fact, India Today and Logically Facts also debunked the claim.  

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