[FALSE] Does this video show the China Eastern Airlines MU5735 plane crash?

 

Screenshot of the Facebook post.

(*Click to view larger image)

 

The Claim and Our Verdict

• The claim: A video shared March 21, 2022, on Facebook, claims to show the China Eastern Airlines MU5735 plane crash.
• Fact-checking:
  • The video was uploaded March 11, 2019 on YouTube. It is a simulation video of the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash in 2019.
  • According to the official websites of Ethiopian Airlines and China Eastern Airlines, the logos of the two airlines are markedly different. In the video circulating online, the wings of the passenger plane are marked with the Ethiopian Airlines logo, not the China Eastern Airlines logo.
• Our ruling: We rate the claim as FALSE.

News Brief

On March 21, 2022, China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 crashed in Wuzhou City, Guangxi on its way from Kunming to Guangzhou. The cause of the crash is still unknown.

A Facebook post was published March 21, 2022, with the caption, “It’s so scary to hear people screaming and see them facing death. I dare not watch the video of the plane crash in which all passengers and crew have been killed. The staff of the Emergency Management Bureau of Wuzhou City, Guangxi has confirmed that the plane crashed and said that they were working to organize a rescue mission. While it is unable to disclose more information now, a press conference will be held in the future.” The video claims to show the China Eastern MU5735 plane crash.

As of the publication of this report, the video had been viewed 557,000 times, and had received 305 comments and 886 likes or reactions.
 

Fact-checking

A reverse image search found that the video shared in the Facebook post in fact comes from another video published March 11, 2019, by the YouTube channel “Bull Bosphorus.” The description of the YouTube video shows that it is a simulation of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302.
 

Comparison on screenshots of the videos on Facebook (left) and YouTube (right)

(*Click to view larger image)

 
In both videos, the wings of the plane are marked with the Ethiopian Airlines logo, not the China Eastern Airlines logo. A rescue video of the China Eastern Airlines crash site released March 22, 2022, by “China News Video,” a subsidiary of the China News Service, shows the China Eastern Airlines logo on the exterior paint of the plane’s wings.
 

Comparison of the airline logo shown in the video (top), the Ethiopian Airlines logo (bottom left)
and the China Eastern Airlines logo (bottom right)

(*Click to view larger image)

 

Screenshot of the rescue video of the China Eastern Airlines crash site

(*Click to view larger image)

 
According to an article published March 12, 2019 by The Reuters, Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 crashed on March 10, 2019, killing all 157 people on board. The wreckage of the plane was found 50 kilometers southeast of Addis Ababa.

Based on the above information, the video circulating online is a simulation video of the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash in 2019 and is not related to the crash of China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 on March 22, 2022.