By Sk Badiruddin
Several news outlets used an old image of a plane crash site from Kathmandu, Nepal to report about the flight crash of Yeti Airlines that happened in Pokhara, Nepal on January 15, 2023.
BOOM found that the image used by the media outlets is originally from a wreckage site of an aircraft, owned by private firm Sita Air, that happened in Kathmandu, Nepal on September 28, 2012.
According to reports, the death toll rose to 68 after a domestic flight owned by Yeti Airlines crashed in Pokhara, Nepal on January 15. The flight was carrying 72 passengers from Nepal's capital Kathmandu. This is the second deadliest crash in Nepal since 1992 which claimed 167 lives on board.
Wire agency ANI, India Today, DNA India and India TV are among the publications which used the image to report about the plane crash in Pokhara.
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Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search on the photo and found that it was published in an article by the Indian Express, in September 2012.
According to the report, a twin-engine propeller plane carrying 19 people crashed outside Katmandu, Nepal right after takeoff, killing all on board.
The same photo was also publishedon IBTimes and was credited to news agency Reuters.
Taking cue from this we ran a keywords search in Reuters Pictures, the international agency's photo archive, and found several images from the 2012 accident.
On September 28, 2012, Reuters documented the image and captioned it as, "A Nepalese police officer stands in front of the wreckage of a Dornier aircraft, owned by private firm Sita Air, at the crash site in Kathmandu September 28, 2012. A small plane crashed shortly after takeoff from the Nepali capital of Kathmandu on Friday, killing 19 people, including seven British and five Chinese passengers, an airline official said."
Photo-journalist Navesh Chitrakar clicked the image .
France 24 reported on September 28 that a twin-engine Sita Air flight with 19 people onboard crashed while going towards Mount Everest. The flight took off from Kathmandu and was headed to the Himalayan town of Lukla.
According to a Nepal Times report from 2012 the crash was caused due to a combination of multiple factors such as overloading, engines producing deficient power, and a possible bird strike.
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