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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Disasters & emergencies fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about disasters & emergencies. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

3,259 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Photo of a Japanese bullet train that sustained damage on its bonnet after hitting an animal in Japan

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a photo circulated as showing a Japanese bullet train with bonnet damage after hitting an animal. FACTLY’s review identifies the pictured train as a Nozomi Shinkansen and says the damage followed a collision with a man, not an animal. The article places the post in the context of social-media mockery after cattle collisions involving the Vande Bharat Express. Its account therefore distinguishes the Japanese incident in the photo from the cattle collisions used as a point of comparison. The review describes a reverse-image search as its check of the photo. It says that the same image appeared on Getty Images, with a caption identifying the train as a Nozomi Shinkansen at JR Shin-Shimonoseki Station in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The caption attributes the cracks to the train having hit and killed a man on the tracks between Hakata and Kokura stations in Fukuoka Prefecture earlier that day, 14 June 2018. FACTLY further reports that news agencies described the person as a 52-year-old caregiver from Fukuoka Prefecture, and concludes that the photo shows damage after a collision with a man rather than an animal. The reported image provenance and incident account directly contradict the animal-collision description attached to the photo. The excerpt does not provide links or details for the other news-agency reports it mentions, so those reports cannot be assessed separately here.

APA - Austria Presse AgenturDisasters & emergencies

Der tödliche Flugzeug-Absturz eines Unternehmers in der Ostsee steht in Zusammenhang mit den Anschlägen auf die Nord-Stream-Gasleitungen.

Publisher’s rating: Es gibt keine Hinweise, dass das Unternehmen Griesemann irgendeine Verbindung zu Nord Stream hatte. Ein Sprecher dementierte die Behauptung, dass das Unternehmen für die Wartung der Pipelines zuständig sei.

The claim links the fatal Baltic Sea crash of entrepreneur Peter Griesemann to the attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, with the alleged connection resting in part on the assertion that his company was responsible for pipeline maintenance. The APA review examined both the crash and the proposed business link. It reports that a Cessna belonging to Griesemann crashed into the Baltic Sea on 4 September 2022, and says the suggested connection to the suspected pipeline sabotage was unsupported by evidence presented in the review. [S1: “Am 4. September 2022 stürzte eine Cessna-Maschine des Unternehmers Peter Griesemann in die Ostsee” and “Dass der Absturz in Verbindung mit dem mutmaßlichen Sabotageakt auf die Nord-Stream-Pipelines steht (7), ist hingegen eine gänzlich unbelegte These.”] For the maintenance allegation, the review says it found no information indicating that Griesemann’s company had that role. It describes checking whether Griesemann appeared on the Nord Stream website or its own company website, and reports that neither contained such information. The company’s spokesperson also denied past or current maintenance work, involvement in construction, or relevant pipeline expertise. These points address the proposed corporate connection; the review does not present them as evidence establishing the precise cause of the crash. [S1: “Zu der Behauptung, dass das Unternehmen Griesemann für die Wartung der Pipeline (8) zuständig gewesen sei, sind ebenfalls keine Informationen auffindbar.”; “Weder wird Griesemann auf der Nord-Stream-Website erwähnt (9), noch findet man auf der Homepage des deutschen Unternehmens Informationen zu Nord Stream (10).”; “Weder in der Vergangenheit noch zum aktuellen Zeitpunkt gab und gibt es Wartungsaufträge für die Pipelines oder zugehörige Technologien.”]

YouturnDisasters & emergencies

டயர் பஞ்சர் ஆகும்போது லோடு தாங்காம கார் அல்லது லாரி மாதிரி வாகனங்களின் ரிம் சப்பையாகும். எத்தனையோ விதமான ரயில் விபத்துகளைப் பாத்திருப்போம். எதிலும் ரயில் வண்டியின் இரும்புச் சக்கரம் இப்படி தட்டையாகறதை பாத்திருக்கவே முடியாது. இதான் வந்தே பாரத். எது எக்கேடு கெட்டுப்போனா என்ன..

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Recent video showing the crash visuals of an Indian Army helicopter

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post presented the video as recent footage of an Indian Army helicopter crash, shared in the wake of a Cheetah helicopter crash in Arunachal Pradesh. The investigation found that the footage instead showed a Mi-8 helicopter crash during an airshow in Russia in September 2014. It therefore does not depict the Indian Army crash described in the post. To identify the footage, the fact-checker reverse-image-searched screenshots from the circulated video. That search located a YouTube video published on 5 September 2014 with a description identifying a Mi-8 crash in Gelendzhik, Russia. The review then searched for further reporting and found a Military.com article describing the footage as a Mi-8 crash during an airshow in Russia. The review reports that the helicopter belonged to the Russian company Panh Helicopters and crash-landed at the airfield during the Gelendzhik Air Show. It says two people were killed and one was seriously injured. These details identify the video as footage of a 2014 Russian accident, rather than the recent Indian Army helicopter crash asserted in the post.

El Detector / Univision NoticiasDisasters & emergencies

Video en el que se ve cómo un torbellino atraviesa el agua y arrasa edificaciones a su llegada a la orilla corresponde al paso del huracán Ian por Florida.

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns footage of a waterspout crossing water and damaging buildings, presented as showing Hurricane Ian in Florida. The investigation reports that the video was not from Ian: it traced the footage to a tornado recorded four years earlier near Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The review notes that tornadoes were reported in Florida shortly before Ian made landfall on September 28, 2022, but distinguishes those reports from the footage in question. To check the video’s provenance, elDetector examined its opening frames, which showed the wording “Crazy tornado footage in Florida,” and identified a TikTok account that collected extreme weather events. The outlet says it visited the account on September 29, 2022, and found the video had been posted there on September 17, before Ian arrived. The video had been removed by September 30, but the outlet retained a screenshot captured the previous day. The review also describes a reverse-image search that led to an April 24, 2018 report containing frames from the same video. That report placed the tornado between Okaloosa Island and Fort Walton Beach. Together, the earlier publication timing and the 2018 report support the conclusion that the footage predates Ian, rather than showing the hurricane’s passage through Florida.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

This man who bought a car with the money he saved after he quit smoking has lost his life in a car accident

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns Mehmet Tok, a man from Turkey pictured with money, and alleges that he died in a car accident after buying a car with money saved by quitting smoking. FACTLY’s review says Tok did save money after quitting, but found no credible information supporting the reported death. It identifies him by name and says the story of his savings was covered in earlier reporting: “The name of the person in the post is Mehmet Tok; he is from Turkey.” The review’s account of those reports says Tok saved for eight years, not six, and used the money for two light commercial vehicles and a motorcycle—not simply the car described in the claim. To check the death allegation, FACTLY says it searched for news reports but “found no credible information” about a car-accident death. It also points to a Demirören News Agency report and video featuring Tok in 2020, and says his Facebook account remained active, with a post dated 18 September 2022. The review concludes that the savings story was true but the claim that Tok died in a car accident was not supported. The account activity and later video weigh against the death claim, though the excerpt does not provide independent verification of his status beyond those observations. The review also corrects the savings story’s details. It says a 2017 Yemek.com article reported that Tok quit after a doctor advised him to do so following a hospital visit for a heart condition. The review describes the viral photograph as appearing in a 2016 video of Tok opening his piggy bank. These details help identify the person and the origin of the image, while separating the documented savings story from the unsupported accident-death claim.