Video shows 2002 Oregon helicopter disaster, not Iran president crash
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Dramatic footage of a helicopter crashing on the snowy slope of Mount Hood in the US state of Oregon resurfaced in posts that falsely linked it to the death of Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi. Raisi was declared dead on May 20, 2024 after his helicopter crashed into a remote mountainside in heavy fog. However, images of the crash site show the disaster occurred in a forested area, not a snowy peak.
"Site of the Iranian president's helicopter crash," read the Korean-language title of a post shared on the DC Inside forum on May 20, 2024.
It included a short clip of a helicopter crashing on the side of a snowy peak, with its fuselage rolling down the mountain and leaving a trail of debris.
The post surfaced after Iranian state TV broke the news of Raisi's death.
A helicopter carrying the Iranian president lost communication while it was travelling to Tabriz, the capital of East Azerbaijan province.
Killed alongside him were Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, provincial officials and members of his security team.
The video was shared in similar posts on YouTube and on South Korean forum Ilbe.
However, it actually shows news footage of a rescue helicopter's crash in Oregon in May 2002.
Misused video
A reverse image search on Google found a matching clip published on YouTube by KGW News, a local Oregon news station on May 31, 2022 (archived link).
The video is titled: "Mount Hood rescue helicopter crash | 20 years later".
The footage, which was also published in KGW's 20th anniversary report on the Mount Hood disaster, shows a rescue helicopter crashing on the mountain's peak while attempting to rescue stranded hikers.
According to the report, three hikers died in the accident that prompted the rescue but no one was killed in the helicopter crash (archived link).
Below are screenshot comparisons between the clip shared in the false posts (left) and the original KGW news clip (right):
The Clackamas County Sheriff's website -- which manages rescue missions in Mount Hood -- published an article showing similar images of the May 2002 disaster (archived link).
"Two local television station helicopters captured the horrific incident live and the footage was broadcast worldwide for many days," it said.
In the footage, the shocked reactions of newscasters can be heard as the helicopter crashes down the slope.
Meanwhile, AFP published photos here and here of the wreckage of Raisi's helicopter, which show the crash did not occur on a snowy peak (archived links here and here).
AFP also distributed an image taken from a video released by the Iranian Red Crescent showing the wreckage of Raisi's helicopter in a forested area.
AFP has fact-checked more photos falsely linked to Raisi's helicopter crash here and here.
