The reports circulated after a plane crashed in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo on August 9, 2024, killing all 62 people on board (archived link).
Video footage showed the ATR 72-500 plane entering a horrific downward spin before crashing into a residential area in the city of Vinhedo, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Brazil’s financial capital Sao Paulo.
The Voepass airliner crashed almost vertically, landing on its belly and exploding in flames, hitting the plane with such force that it almost “crushed” it, according to Olivia Perroni Cazo, a Sao Paulo firefighter lieutenant.
Video game
Google reverse image search found an earlier version of the video uploaded by TikTok user @fly_zone77 on August 10, 2024.
The video was captioned: “Moments before the plane crash in Brazil.”
However, the TikTok user has profile indicated that the account posts clips from the action-adventure video game Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5) (archived link).
Features of the video game to involve plane crash simulation (archived link).
The TikTok account regularly posts other animated videos of plane crashes.
AFP also found that the plane seen in the circulating video did not match the twin-propeller plane. ATR 72-500 model operated by Voepass that crashed in Brazil (archived link).
Below is a screenshot of a comparison between the fake video (left) and the official photo of the ATR72-500 aircraft (right), with elements highlighted by AFP:
Witness videos of the incident – as reported by the Spanish television network Telemundo News and Argentine newspaper Clarinet — show the plane spiraling downward with no visible signs of fire before it crashed (archived links) here And here).
AFP has published tips on how to recognize computer generated videos of plane crashes.
