A video of what appears to be a plane engulfed by flames has been viewed thousands of times in Facebook posts that claim it shows an accident at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport that serves the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. However, the video has been shared in a misleading context. Major media outlets reported that the footage was taken during an emergency fire drill that used a dummy plane.
The video was shared here on Facebook on January 3, 2022. It shows flames and smoke billowing from what appears to be a grounded plane, with sirens heard in the distance.
The video has been viewed more than 12,000 times.
Its Bengali-language caption reads: "After the ferry incident, now a plane is set ablaze. A plane was burnt to ashes in Hazrat Shahjalal International airport".
Dozens of people died when a packed ferry caught fire in southern Bangladesh on December 24, 2021.
Screenshot of the misleading post. Captured January 18, 2022.
The video was also shared here and here with similar captions.
Some social media users appeared to believe the video showed a genuine emergency.
"Were there passengers on the plane?" one person commented.
"Innalillah," another wrote, using a Muslim word used upon hearing bad news.
In reality, the video shows an emergency drill according to multiple news reports.
Combined reverse image and keyword searches found a similar video in a report by Bangladeshi news channel Jamuna Television about an emergency fire drill at Hazrat Shahjalal International airport on December 31, 2021.
Below is a comparison between the video in misleading posts (left) and Jamuna Television's broadcast (right).
Screenshot comparison between the video in misleading Facebook posts (L) and Jamuna Television's broadcast (R)
Various media outlets reported on the fire drill using similar footage, including here and here.
"The plane skidded off the runway. The right engine caught fire. The plane set alight. This was not a real incident but rather a drill to practise how to face to such an emergency in future," the narrator says in Somoy Television's report from December 31, 2021.
Bangladesh's state minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Mahbub Ali, who attended the drill, was quoted in a news report saying it would "not only help us to get the certification of International Civil Aviation Organization but also prepare us to face real accidents".
Media reports here and here said the drill used a dummy plane.
"A dummy aircraft parked next to the airport taxiway was set on fire for the drill. At 1:17 am, the Air Traffic Control Tower reported the fire on the dummy plane. Four minutes later, at 1:21 am, a fire service vehicle arrived at the airport to put out the fire," the Bangladesh Post reported.