Truck-Chopper Accident in Brazil Falsely Viral as One From Punjab

The video is going viral on social media with the claim that it is from Amritsar, Delhi or even just India.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video of a truck crashing into the whirring rotor blades of a stationary helicopter is falsely going viral on social media as an incident that happened in Amritsar’s Ratan Singh Chowk. But we found that the incident is actually from Rio Branco, a city in Brazil.

CLAIM

The video, which shows a helicopter standing on a road, while cars pass by, till a truck turns onto it and hits the rotor blades, is being shared by a huge number of people on social media with the claim that it is from Amritsar.

An archived version of the tweet can be found here.(Photo: Screenshot/Twitter)

An archived version of the tweet can be found here.(Photo: Screenshot/Twitter)

An archived version of the tweet can be found here.(Photo: Screenshot/Twitter)

The video was also shared on Facebook as an incident in Delhi.

An archived version of the post can be found here.(Photo: Screenshot/Facebook)

An archived version of the post can be found here.(Photo: Screenshot/Facebook)

WHAT WE FOUND

On looking closely at the video, we found that the wall that can be seen bears the words Rio Branco in capital letters. This we knew to be a city in Brazil, which was our first clue to the fact that this video is not from Amritsar or Delhi or India.

Further, on running a keyword search about a collision between a truck and a helicopter, we came across a longer version of the same video on YouTube, shared with the location tag of Rio Branco.

We also found a news report by Daily Mail, which confirmed that the incident had happened in Brazil’s Rio Branco. According to the report, it was a police helicopter that was preparing to take off before the truck ran into the rotor blades, leaving two of the chopper’s five occupants slightly injured.

The news report also quoted several Rio Branco officials on the accident and how it had happened, confirming its veracity. The incident had happened in January 2020.

Therefore, it is clear from the above that an incident from Brazil is falsely being shared as one that happened in Delhi or Amritsar.

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