Fake video of Kobe Bryant helicopter crash goes viral
In reality, the footage stems from a 2018 accident in the United Arab Emirates.
PARIS (AFP) - A widely shared video claiming to show the helicopter crash that killed US basketball legend Kobe Bryant and his teenage daughter has drawn more than three million views on social media.
In reality, the footage stems from a 2018 accident in the United Arab Emirates.
What are we verifying?
The video started circulating on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram hours after Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna died along with seven other people on Sunday when the helicopter they were travelling in slammed into a hillside in thick fog west of Los Angeles.
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A Twitter user going by the handle @GhostFearles shared the clip late Sunday with the caption "R.I.P. @kobybrant died videos". By midday Monday, the video had drawn more than 2.2 million views.
Meanwhile, the account @Poundstvv pinned a tweet with the video at the top of its page on Sunday evening, saying it was "footage of how @kobybryant’s helicopter crashed in the air that resulted in his death". The post had some 1.1 million views by Monday.
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Based on AFP analysis, the video had been viewed more than 3.7 million times across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and shared thousands of times by Monday afternoon.
What do we know?
An online search revealed that the video was in fact taken on December 29, 2018 when a rescue helicopter crashed near the world’s longest zipline in the Northern Emirates, killing its crew.
AFP used social media analysis tools to trace back the footage to two longer versions published on January 5, 2019 on video-sharing websites LiveLeak and YouTube.
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The crash sequence in the clips is identical to those seen in the video shared following Bryant’s fatal accident.
The YouTube video’s caption reads: "Helicopter crashes after hitting zipline on Jebel Jais, killing all of its crew."
Ras Al Khaimah is the northernmost emirate in the UAE while Jebel Jais is the country’s highest peak.
Major news outlets including the BBC had covered the helicopter crash at the time and their reports can be found with a simple Google keyword search.
