Unrelated images shared with false claims of fatal Mauritanian plane crash to Mecca
When Muslims from all over the world go to Mecca, Saudi Arabia to participate The annual pilgrimage to J in early June 2025Share images of planes in flames on social media More than 200 people were killed in a Mauritanian plane claiming to be carrying pilgrims. This is wrong; one of the pictures goes back to 18 years of unrelated activities in the Republic of Congo 2024 . The Mauritani government also denied this statement.
“A plane carrying pilgrims of Mauritania crashed on the way to the holy city of Mecca. More than 210 pilgrims of J-J were struggling with Mar,” part of a text covering posted on the Tiktok post on May 28, 2025.
The title of the post has been shared over 1300 times, including the hashtag “#AirPlaneCrashmauritania”.
Screenshot of False Tiktok Post, taken on June 5, 2025
The video contains two still images of burning aircraft on the runway and plays motion filters and Arabic music in the background.
Similar claims are published here and on Facebook here.
Every year, millions of Muslims are considered the birthplace of the Prophet Mohammed (archived here).
However, posts claiming images of a burning plane show that the Moritanian air disaster involves Muslims On the way to Mecca in June 2025 It's wrong.
Old images
Search results show that the image has been previously associated with reports of disasters from different airlines.
tWO online publications date back to 2022 (archived here) and 2024 (archived here), and previously used photos to illustrate two separate events.
The first time happened, when Nigerian Air Force plane crashed in April 2022, killing two pilots on board (reserved here). The second incident reported by the BBC in December 2023 was not a crash at all, but involved a NAF aircraft that apparently misled a NAF aircraft among believers in a mosque in Kaduna, northwestern Nigeria, killing about 85 people (archived here).
However, reverse image search shows that this photo was published by Aviation website Airliners on May 10, 2007 (archived here) and displayed A Russian-made Ilyushin IL-76TD military cargo aircraft fire occurred at the Pointe-Noire Agostino Neto airport in the southwest of the Republic of Congo.
“The IL-76 freighter caught fire on the ground while loading, preparing for a flight to Brazzaville (BZV),” reads the photo caption.
The marker on the nose of the plane in the Tiktok post obviously matches the marker in the original image.
Screenshots Comparing fake posts (left) and original photos posted by passenger planes (right)
Since 2007, various articles in local news media have confirmed the date and location of the incident, indicating that there are no casualties (archived here and here).
Other images of the activity found on the online forum Flightstory (archived here) are used with Google Earth searches to find out where the fire is located, placing it next to the air traffic control tower seen in photos taken outside the airport.
On Google satellite images taken in 2018, you can still see where the plane burns (located behind the control tower) (see here).
Screenshots compare images of 2007 Fire published on Flightstory (top) and Google Earth View (bottom)
Reverse image Search for a second image in Tiktok video results in AFP report Published on France 24 A South Korean passenger plane crashed around December 2024, killing 179 people (archived here).
Appear in AFP article It is a picture showing the plane's damaged. The title in the AFP file reads: “Firefighters and recovery teams are working on the scene, and Jeju Airlines 737-800 series plane crashed at Muan International Airport in Moon and hit the flames about 288 kilometers southwest on December 30, 2024.
Jung Yeon-JeAFP
Jung Yeon-Je/AFP
The photos used in the false claim appear to have been changed to remove the Korean flag, which is clearly visible on the side of the plane of the AFP photo.
Screenshots compare the second image of the original AFP photo published by False Post (top) and France 24 (bottom)
AFP fact-check found no reliable reports about the latest Mauritanian plane crash.
However, the Mauritanian state-run news media issued a statement confirming that all pilgrims arrived safely on 4 June 2025 (archived here).
Additionally, Mauritania Airlines dismissed all requests for collapse in a statement posted on Facebook on May 27, 2025 (archived here).
“Some foreign social media pages have spread malicious rumors about a plane carrying Mauritanian pilgrims falling in the Red Sea. The reports are completely unfounded,” Arabic said.
“Mauritania Airlines confirmed that all Mauritanian pilgrims arrived at the Holy Land safely and thank God, no accidents were related to flights organized in this case.”
AFP fact-check has previously debunked other images related to this claim.
