A Russian passenger plane crashed yesterday in the Amur region near the Chinese border, with all passengers and crew members reported dead. In the aftermath, several images claiming to show the wreckage have surfaced on social media. However, at least one widely circulated image is unrelated to the incident. This report verifies and addresses the misuse of that image.  

 

 

Investigation

 

On July 24, an Angara Airlines AN-24 passenger plane carrying nearly 50 passengers crashed in Khabarovsk, Russia. The aircraft had disappeared from radar while flying over the Amur region near the Chinese border. It was en route from Blagoveshchensk, a city near the Russia-China border, to the town of Tynda.

Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsia, later confirmed that wreckage from the aircraft was located in the Amur region. While several local news outlets shared images allegedly showing the crash site, one widely circulated image could not be matched with any verified photos from the scene.

Russian Angara Airlines passenger plane with nearly 50 people on board crashes in far east| The Independent

Russian plane crashes in Russia's far east, nearly 50 people on board feared dead | Reuters

Upon investigation, the viral image was found to be unrelated to the current crash. A reverse image search revealed that the image appeared in a report by British media outlet The Guardian and pertains to a different aviation disaster—the crash of Air India Express Flight IX 812 on May 22, 2010. That flight, which was travelling from Dubai to Mangalore’s Bajpe Airport in Karnataka, crashed during landing, resulting in the deaths of over 150 people.

  

Reality

This claim is misleading. The image being circulated is actually from the 2010 Air India Express crash at Mangalore's Bajpe Airport and is being falsely presented as a photo of the recent Russian plane crash.