2022 video from Georgia falsely linked to Iranian President's fatal helicopter crash

What is the claim?

On May 19, a fatal helicopter crash killed Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, and other officials in the East Azerbaijan province of the West Asian nation. After the crash, many videos and images are being shared on social media, claiming to show the site of the crash and how it happened. One such video of a helicopter crashing into a hill has been shared with the claim that it captures Raisi’s fatal crash.

An X (formerly Twitter) user shared the video with the caption, “Trump publishes a video of the Iranian President’s plane crash...Who is behind the plane crash #الرئيس_الإيراني _ Ibrahim Raisi and his companions in the Varazgan forests (translated from Persian).” At the time of writing, the post had over 1 million views and 2,700 likes. 

Screenshot of the viral video circulating online. (Source: X/Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the video is old and doesn’t show Raisi’s helicopter crashing. It shows a border police helicopter in Georgia meeting with an accident during a rescue operation.

Here are the facts

The user sharing the video claimed in the caption that ‘Trump’ had posted the video. Our search showed us that this video was not shared by former U.S. President Donald Trump but by the account ’دونالد ترامب (Informal),’ whose account handle is ‘@DonaldTrumpAOCC.’  While this user’s caption of the viral video suggests it shows Raisi’s accident, it is to be noted that the user’s bio states that it is a parody account. We found no such video shared on Donald Trump’s official X account. Trump has, in fact, not shared any post on X since August 2023.

We found that the now-viral video dates back to 2022. A reverse image search led us to a video (archived here) report published by news outlet 24KZ, which included the same visuals as the viral clip. 24KZ, also known as Khabar 24, is a Kazakhstan-based news channel, and had shared the video report on YouTube on July 30, 2022. 

The now-viral clip can be viewed in the video report at around 0:21 seconds. According to the 24kz report, the visuals show a helicopter that crashed in the mountain resort of Georgia’s Gudauri on July 29, 2022. Georgia had declared a day of mourning following the mishap.

A screenshot of the video report uploaded by 24KZ on YouTube in 2022. (Source: YouTube/Screenshot)

Agenda News, a local news outlet in Georgia, reported that on July 29, 2022, a Georgian Border Police aircraft carrying first responders and rescuers from the Emergency Management Service crashed during a rescue mission in the winter resort town of Gudauri. 

We also found another video of the mishap, taken from a different angle, uploaded by a website called Newsflare in July 2022.

According to Georgia Today, in July 2022, eight rescuers boarded a helicopter to rescue two paragliders who had fallen from a mountain slope. However, the aircraft lost control and crashed in Gudauri. 

The verdict

A 2022 video of a police helicopter crashing into the mountains of Gudauri in Georgia has been misinterpreted to be from Iran. It is unrelated to the helicopter accident that killed the Iranian President.