Photo purporting to show Malawi Vice President Chilima’s plane crash is old
Photograph from a plane crash that occurred on September 26, 2020 in Chuguev in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine
CLAIM
Viral images circulating on social media appear to show the site of the plane crash where Malwai Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima was killed along with nine others.
BACKGROUND
Social media users in Malawi have been sharing an image purporting to show the site of the plane crash where Malwai Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima was killed along with nine others on June 10.
The military plane had taken off from the Malawi capital Lilongwe, along with the former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri on board, but went off the radar in poor visibility and wreckage from the crash was later discovered in the Chikangawa forest.
Images of the plane crash began circulating social media the next day by Malawi internet personalities, including an image shared by Malawi internet celebrity and politician Alinur Mohamed who has over 145,000 followers on X.
The image was then shared by many users on across social media, including a post on Facebook by a man named DJ Kauzy Supersta who has over 5,000 followers. The post expressed condolences for the 10 lives lost alongside the image.
In these two instances alone the image claiming to show the crash site was seen by over 215,000 users across social media, with other posts sharing the image wracking up even more views.
METHOD
In order the verify the validity of the image, we needed to find out the origins of the photograph circulating on Malwai social media.
Upon a Google reverse image search we were taken to the website of Chinese-owned Xinhua News Agency, which first published the image on September 26, 2020 and credited the photo to Ukrainian photographer Sergey Starostenko.
The original photograph shows an Antonov An-26 military aircraft that crashed in Chuhuiv, located in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, during a training flight with 27 people on board.
The same image was also shared to the stock image website Alarmy, who also credited the image to Sergey Starostenko for publication on Xinhua.
To further verify the misrepresented image we sought to identify the original photograph of the Malwai plane crash.
The original images of the crash site where Malwai Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima was killed were shared by the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) on Facebook on June 11. The MBC is the only public broadcaster in Malawi.
Their caption read, “President Dr Lazarus Chakwera has confirmed that Vice President Dr Saulos Klaus Chilima and nine others have lost their lives after the aircraft they were travelling in crashed at Chikangawa Forest in Mzimba.”
Corroborating reports from international media then shared the images of the Malwai crash site which were seen on CNN and Al Jazeera. In those images, which can be seen here and here, we can see that the plane wreckage is different from in the image we are investigating.
From this analysis, we can conclude that the image shared on Malawi social media purporting to show the June 10 crash site of the plane that killed Malawi Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima is false, and that the image was actually a military aircraft that crashed in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine in 2020.
RATING
The viral image circulating on Malwai social media is not from the recent plane crash involving Malawi Vice President Saulos Chilima. Rather, it is a photograph from a plane crash that occurred on September 26, 2020 in Chuguev in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine.
SOURCES
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: Malawi Vice President Saulos Chilima and… [Accessed 17 Jun. 2024].
Facebook.com. (2023). Available at: BREAKING NEWS Malawi Vice President…[online] Accessed 17 Jun. 2024].
Xinhuanet.com. (2020). Available at: Ukrainian military plane most likely crashes ‘catching ground with its wing’ – Xinhua | [online] [Accessed 17 Jun. 2024].
Facebook.com. (2023). Available at: MBC Digital – #Chilima #MissingPlane President Dr Lazarus… [online] [Accessed 17 Jun. 2024].
CNN (2024). Available at :Malawi vice president killed in plane crash along with 9 other passengers. [online] [Accessed 17 Jun. 2024].
Al Jazeera. (2024). Available at: Malawi’s vice president killed in plane crash. [online] [Accessed 17 Jun. 2024].