Viral photos linked to Pokhara plane crash are misleading

A Yeti Airlines plane carrying 68 passengers and four crew members crashed into a gorge in Pokhara on 15 January 2023. Following the disaster, old photos purportedly showing the Pokhara crash went viral on social media platforms.

Latestly, an Indian media outlet, published a news report on the crash in Pokhara, crediting the Indian news agency ANI. Its caption lacks dates for the image. Twitter user @AbeedahAkhtar shared the same photo with a caption that said 72 people died in the plane crash in Pokhara. His tweet was viewed over 80,000 times. [Archived tweet] 

Another Twitter user @surabhi_tiwari_ posted images purporting to show the Yeti Airlines plane crash in Nepal. She introduced herself as a TV news anchor on Twitter. Her tweet has received over 350,000 views [archive]. On Twitter, @Ashoke Raj, who describes himself as an Indian journalist, tweeted the photo with similar claims.

Nepal Check conducted a reverse image search of these photos (first and second) on search engines such as Google and Yandex. The first image depicted the wreckage of Sita Air that crashed near Tribhuvan International Airport on September 28, 2012. The second image shows the plane of US-Bangla Airlines, which crashed into a football field near Kathmandu International Airport on March 12, 2018.

The first photo is taken by Navesh Chitrakar, a photojournalist with the news agency Reuters. Published on America’s ABC News, the second photo is credited to Associated Press correspondent Niranjan Shrestha.

Both plane crashes took place in Kathmandu. But they occurred ten years and about 5 years ago. 

Therefore, Nepal Check concluded the claims were misleading.

ClaimClaimed byNepal Check
Photos shows Yeti Airlines’ plane crash on January 15 in Pokhara.Twitter usersMisleading
Nepal Check verdict after fact checking the viral photos on social media claiming to show the January 15 plane crash in Pokhara, Nepal.

This article is written by

Himal Poudel

Poudel is a fact-checker at Nepal Check. For the last two years, he has worked as a reporter and a translator. He was a political reporter at Naya Patrika, one of Nepal’s leading dailies, from August 2021 to August 2022. Prior to joining Naya Patrika, he worked as a desk editor at Sunaulo Nepal, a digital platform.