Viral image is an edited stock photo, not Iranian president's helicopter crash | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·3 min read
1

The claim: Image shows Iranian president's helicopter burning before crash

A May 20 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a helicopter exploding into flame in the air.

"Iranian president's helicopter was burning in the air!" reads the post's caption in Urdu. "Photos taken from Chinese satellite have been handed over to Iranian authorities."

The post garnered more than 10,000 likes in three days. Other versions of the claim were shared on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and X, formerly Twitter.

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Our rating: False

The image is an edited version of a stock photo captured in Italy in 2012. Iranian media reported the cause of the Iranian president's helicopter crash was a "technical failure," not an explosion.

Image is edited, unrelated to president's helicopter crash

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and seven other officials died in a helicopter crash in a mountainous area near the Azerbaijan border on May 19. Reuters reported the group was riding in a Bell 212 model helicopter, originally developed for the Canadian military in the late 1960s.

The helicopter photographed by Reuters on the day of the crash is visibly different from the one shown in the Instagram post – with different blue and white striping and no orange accents, as the helicopter in the post has.

There is also no indication the crash was caused by an explosion. Iranian media reported the cause of the crash was likely a "technical failure," The New York Times reported. USA TODAY previously reported the group was traveling in a years-old U.S.-made helicopter, as years of Western and U.S. sanctions prevented Iran from servicing and modernizing its fleet of aircraft.

Fact check: Footage of Iranian president riding in plane not captured hours before crash

The image in the Instagram post was uploaded to Adobe Stock as early as 2015 under the generic name "plane crash," according to the reverse image search engine TinEye. The helicopter in the stock image includes the same explosion as in the post, but it's shown flying in front of a light blue background, not a green, mountainous one as seen in the post.

A version of the picture without the digitally added explosion and broken tail was published even earlier on Shutterstock and Alamy, where it was identified as a photo of a helicopter flying in Italy.

"09/09/2012 Valdagno – Italy – aerial photographic surveys with helicopter," reads part of the photo's caption on both sites.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Lead Stories also debunked the claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Image doesn't show Iranian president's helicopter burning | Fact check