Old photo used in Raisi’s helicopter crash reports
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has died in a helicopter crash. Several bodies, including Raisi’s, have been recovered from the crash site. Photos of the incident have also been found. However, some media outlets mistakenly used an old photo of a crash. Verification reveals that the misused photo was actually taken after a 2020 plane crash in Iran’s Mazandaran province.
BBC News Bangla is among the media outlets that used the incorrect photo. In a report published at 9:37 a.m. on May 20, titled “Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Killed in Helicopter Crash,” the BBC used a plane crash photo with a caption that read “helicopter crash photo.” Though the caption did not specify which crash the the photo depicted, it suggested that it was from the latest helicopter crash. Verification by Dismislab found the photo was not from President Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter crash. It was actually from a different plane crash in Iran in 2020 (1, 2). Additionally, Iranian journalist Ghoncheh Habibiazad confirmed on her X (formerly Twitter) account that the photo was from a 2020 plane crash in Iran’s Mazandaran province. On X, Habibiazad identifies herself as a journalist for BBC Monitoring.
Media outlets usually label old photos as “file photos,” which BBC Bangla also follows. For example, in a report titled “Who are the Somali Pirates and How Did They Rise?” BBC News Bangla used an old photo with a “file photo” label. However, they did not mention this in Raisi’s report. Later, BBC Bangla changed the photo.
The same incorrect photo was used as a thumbnail in a YouTube video published by Bangladeshi media outlet ATN Bangla. The online news portal Freedom Bangla News also used the same photo in their report. The incorrect photo was seen in a condolence message from the Pakistan Red Crescent as well. Many Facebook users in Bangladesh posted the same incorrect photo, thinking it was from Raisi’s crash (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).On Sunday, May 19, a helicopter carrying Iranian President Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and several others crashed near Jolfa in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. Iran’s state news agency, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), confirmed that all passengers died in the crash.
