A video purportedly showing a chopper engulfed by flames before crashing to the ground is making rounds on social media site X (Twitter). Users are fiercely sharing this video and associating it with the Iranian President Raisi’s Chopper crash. Moreover, some of them are attempting to give it the name of a missile or drone attack on Raisi.

An account with the username @S_T_A18 shared this video on X and wrote: “This video is going viral from the mountainous areas of Iran. The location is being determined. It is said that there has been a drone attack. As a result of the drone attack, Ayatollah Ibrahim Raisi fell in the middle of the mountains along with other colleagues” (Translated from Urdu)

Furthermore, several users shared this video on X and made similar claims.

Fact-Check

Upon reverse-searching the keyframes generated from the viral video, the DFRAC team found some reports from The Washington Post and a Hebrew media outlet carrying the extended version of this video. As per reports, a Kurdish fighter shot down a Turkish combat helicopter with a Russian anti-aircraft missile. additionally, the reports were published in 2016.

On investigating further, we also discovered a report by Zee News dated 2016 on YouTube with the caption: “Kurd fighter shot down Turkish helicopter”. The report depicted similar visuals as seen in the above viral video.

Conclusion

It is evident from DFRAC’s fact-check that the viral video is unrelated to the Iranian president’s deadly chopper crash. In reality, the video dates back to 2016 showing a Kurdish fighter shooting down a Turkish chopper with a Russian anti-aircraft missile.

Hence, the claim made by social media users is false.

Analysis: Misleading