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  • 2021-08-30 (xsd:date)
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  • This image is not from Afghanistan 2021, it is a doctored old photo of a Chinese plane (en)
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  • An image has circulated in multiple online posts which claim it shows a person falling from a plane in Afghanistan in August 2021. However, the claim is false: the picture is a doctored version of an old photo of a Chinese military plane. NOUR News, a news agency related to the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, released a photo, which is said to be a snapshot of an Afghan refugee falling from the 'US C-17', reads the traditional Chinese Twitter post shared on August 20, 2021. It continues: ... the plane in the picture is actually the Chinese Communist Party’s Y-20. I think Hu Xijin [chief editor for Chinese state newspaper Global Times] needs to come out and explain what's going on. The post has been shared more than 170 times. The image purports to show a screenshot of an Instagram post by Nour News. The Farsi-language text reads: A new image of an Afghan citizen falling [after getting] on the wheels of an American plane in the hope of leaving Kabul . The picture has been shared many times on social media. The picture is of an airborne plane, with an upside-down figure falling next to it. Screenshot taken on August 25, 2021, of the misleading Twitter post The same image was also published in other languages here , here and here . Tens of thousands of Afghans have flocked to Kabul airport in a bid to flee the country following the Taliban's takeover. In a harrowing video that has circulated online since August 16, 2021, hundreds of people were seen running alongside a US Air Force plane as it gathered speed on the runway -- several men desperately holding onto the side. Further clips on social media appeared to show two people falling from a C-17 aircraft after it took off. An Afghan sports federation later confirmed that one of their national football youth team members fell to his death after clinging to a plane, AFP reported . But the plane in the posts is not a US C-17 aircraft -- it is a Chinese military plane, and the image has been doctored from an old photo to include the person falling. Reverse image searches on Google found a near-identical image of the plane in this article published by Iranian technology site IT Radar on December 17, 2016. The 2016 photo appears to show the same plane, but without a person falling off. In the image in the misleading posts there is also an added shape on the lefthand side of the undercarriage. Below is a screenshot comparison of the image shared in the misleading posts (L) and the photo from the 2016 article (R). Screenshot comparison of the image shared in the misleading posts (L) and the photo from the 2016 article (R) The article identifies the aircraft as the Chinese military's Y-20 . The same Y-20 photo appears on aviation image site AirTeamImages, which says it was taken on November 7, 2014. Screenshot taken on August 25, 2021, of the plane image on AirTeamImages The purported Nour News Instagram post cannot be found on the agency's account . AFP found no credible reports of the Chinese government using military planes to carry out evacuations from Kabul in August 2021. When asked on August 27, 2021, the Chinese foreign ministry told AFP that the Chinese government arranged ad hoc commercial aircraft in the early July to assist Chinese citizens who urgently needed to return to China. There are still a small number of Chinese citizens voluntarily staying in Afghanistan. The Chinese Embassy in Afghanistan has established contact with them, maintained close communication and provided the necessary assistance. In July AFP reported on a Chinese evacuation carried out using a Xiamen Airlines flight. (en)
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