Photos Show Old Nepal Air Disasters, Not 2024 Plane Crash

The images were shared with similar claims elsewhere on Facebook here It is here and in here It is here.

But photos showed previous plane crashes in Nepal.

2018 plane crash

A reverse image search on Google found the first photo in the The Associated Press news agency (AP).

“Nepali rescue teams are near a passenger plane from Bangladesh that crashed at Kathmandu airport in Nepal on March 12, 2018,” the caption read.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the image shared in misleading posts (left) and the photo published by AP (right):

Fifty-one people died and 20 were seriously injured in tit crashed involving a US-Bangla Airways plane.

One investigation by Nepalese authorities concluded that the pilot’s disorientation and lack of situational awareness led to the disaster.

AFP previously unmasked misleading posts that shared the same photo in 2023.

2023 deadly disaster

Another reverse image search on Google found the second photo in a News report published on the website of French news organization Le Monde on January 15, 2023 (archived link).

“Rescue workers and Nepalese civilians gather around the wreckage of a passenger plane that crashed in Pokhara, Nepal, on Sunday, January 15, 2023,” the caption read, with the photo credited to AP.

Keyword searches of the AP photo archives found the photo here (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the image shared in misleading posts (left) and the 2023 plane crash photo published by AP (right):

The Yeti Airlines flight with 68 passengers and four crew plummeted into a steep gorge, crashed into pieces and caught fire as it approached the city of Pokhara in central Nepal.

Everyone on board, including six children and 15 foreigners, is believed to have died.