CLAIM
Amid growing concerns over COVID-19, visuals of a massive panic at an airport are doing the rounds on social media. The video claims that an Ethiopian Airlines plane from Italy, full of people infected with coronavirus, has landed at Addis Ababa Airport. Staff and security personnel can be seen catering to the alarmed passengers.
The caption of a Facebook post read, “The Ethiopian Airlines flight from Italy this evening to Addis Ababa airport. Most of the passengers are infected with the virus, and there is no strength except in God.”
(An archived version of the post can be viewed here.)
(An archived version of the tweet can be viewed here.)
(An archived version of the tweet can be viewed here.)
Many Facebook users shared the same video with the exact same claim.
TRUE OR FALSE?
False.
The visuals actually pertain to a mock rescue drill that took place at Blaise Diagne Airport near the town of Diass, Senegal. The incident dates back to 28 November 2019 and was a simple simulation aimed at evaluating the capacity to respond to various crises that may arise during airport operations.
WHAT IS THE TRUTH?
We searched on YouTube with keywords ‘Addis Ababa airport passengers infected with coronavirus’ and came across a video a sentence of whose description read, “A video of a hostage rescuing mock drill in Senegal has resurfaced with claims that it shows passengers, infected with coronavirus, disembarking a flight from Italy.”
Observing a news channel logo on the upper right corner of the video and taking cues from the above description, we again searched on YouTube with keywords ‘rescue drill at Senegal airport D tv’ and found a video dated 29 November 2019 by Dakaractu TV.
The video is titled, “Diass : Test grandeur nature du plan d’urgence de l’Aéroport Dakar Blaise Diagne” – Translation: “Diass: Full-scale test of the Dakar Blaise Diagne Airport emergency plan”.
Although the visuals of the video didn’t completely match with the viral video but we could match a couple of frames.
We also found the video on Dakaractu TV’s website.
Evidently, an old video of a rescue drill is being shared with false claims amid the coronavirus scare.
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