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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.

3,262 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Images of recent forest fires in Uttarakhand

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The post presented a set of forest-fire images as showing recent fires in Uttarakhand. FACTLY checked the images individually, using reverse-image searches to find earlier publications of the same or matching photographs and comparing those publications’ captions and locations with the post’s claim. Its conclusion is mixed: some images do depict the ongoing fires, but others are old images from Uttarakhand or show fires elsewhere, so the set as a whole gives a misleading impression. The review describes several specific matches. One image had appeared in a 2016 Indian Express article, which identified it as a fire near Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. Another matched an India Today article dated 5 April 2021, whose caption placed the scene in Uttarakhand’s Tehri region and described workers trying to contain a fire. Other matches pointed to a 2011 wildfire near Bastrop State Park in Texas, a 2019 fire near Bandipur in Karnataka, and an Uttarakhand fire image published in 2018—too early to show a recent fire. Not every image could be verified. FACTLY says that searches for four images found recent social-media posts and news articles attributing them to the ongoing Uttarakhand fires, but that it could not independently verify their sources. Thus, the review does not establish that every image was old or unrelated; it establishes that the post’s unqualified presentation of the entire set as recent Uttarakhand fire imagery was not reliable.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Driver uses his truck to safely land an airplane with the failed landing gear

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLY examined a social-media video presented as showing a truck driver rescuing an airliner with a problem with its front wheel. Its review identifies the footage instead as a Nissan Frontier commercial made in 2011 by Zoic Studios using visual effects. The dramatic rescue is therefore not documentary footage of a real landing. The review’s conclusion directly addresses the claim that the driver used his truck to help land an aircraft with failed landing gear. The review describes a reverse-image search that found videos with similar visuals on YouTube dating back to at least 2011. Their descriptions identified the footage as a fictional Nissan Frontier advertisement. It also notes that a better-quality version carried the warning “Fictionalization. Do not attempt.” Those clues place the circulating video in the context of a staged commercial rather than a real aviation emergency. FACTLY further reports finding a similar advertisement on Nissan UK’s YouTube channel. It says the commercial was presented in the style of a breaking-news report, including witness reports and an interview with the driver, and that Zoic Studios published a video showing how the commercial was made. The review characterizes the shared footage as an old Nissan Frontier commercial recirculated as a real rescue; the excerpts do not identify the social-media post’s uploader or establish when that particular post first appeared.

Satya Priya BNDisasters & emergencies

Elon Musl killed in a factory explosion

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review examined social-media posts claiming that Elon Musk had died in a factory explosion. It describes the claim spreading on 5 March alongside the hashtag #RIPELON, screenshots presented as news reports, and condolence messages. The purported report headline said, “Elon Musk declared dead after Tesla Factory explosion.” The review says the screenshots were not genuine articles and reports that searches for “Tesla factory explosion” did not find genuine results supporting the story. It also says Newsmeter found no genuine articles confirming the viral claim. These checks address both the alleged cause of death and the claim that credible news sources had reported it. As further evidence, the review reports that Musk tweeted an eye-roll emoji after the story went viral. It also notes that Snopes had debunked the claim, citing the absence of official statements from Tesla, SpaceX, or Musk’s social-media accounts. The review concludes that the claim was false and that Musk was alive and active.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Video of a sand tornado disrupting the BJP election campaign meeting in West Bengal

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post presented a video as recent footage of a sand tornado disrupting a BJP election campaign meeting in West Bengal. The review says the video was circulating amid rallies and meetings ahead of the 2021 West Bengal Assembly Elections, and checked whether the depicted event was actually connected to that campaign. It concludes that the video did not show a BJP meeting in West Bengal. To trace the footage, the review describes reverse image searches of screenshots from the video. Those searches found similar visuals in a Daily Mail article about a whirlwind at a church event in Ukambani, Kenya. The review also reports that the same video appeared on Daily Mail’s official YouTube channel. It identifies the event as having occurred in 2018, rather than during the West Bengal election campaign. The reported context is a fierce whirlwind disrupting the church event, with sand and dust swirling and chairs and other equipment in its path. The review says the footage depicts that Kenyan event and is unrelated to the BJP election meetings in West Bengal. Thus, the video’s appearance of a sand tornado does not establish the claimed location or political event; the review’s image-search findings and identification of the earlier Kenyan footage address those central parts of the claim.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Video of Balanagar- Jeedimetla flyover collapse

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video presented as showing the collapse of the Balanagar–Jeedimetla flyover in Hyderabad. FACTLY reports that the footage instead shows a section of an under-construction flyover collapsing in Varanasi in 2018, and says Telangana Police clarified that the video was unrelated to Hyderabad. The review describes checking screenshots from the video with reverse image search. That led to a 2018 news report about the Varanasi collapse. It also says an Indian Express report carried images similar to screenshots from the viral footage, and that ANI had shared images of the accident. Together, these comparisons connect the circulated video to the earlier Varanasi incident rather than the claimed Hyderabad event. As further checks, FACTLY reports finding a Telangana Police response dated 24 February 2021, after a Twitter user asked whether the video was genuine, and searching for news reports of a Balanagar–Jeedimetla collapse. The review says it found no such recent reports. Its conclusion is that the footage is old Varanasi footage being misrepresented as a Hyderabad collapse.