Emirates airline denies viral crash video, says it’s ‘fabricated content’

Dubai’s Emirates airline has issued a statement after several videos surfaced on social media, depicting an aircraft in the airline’s livery purportedly crashing in a dramatic fashion.

“Emirates confirms it is fabricated content and untrue,” the airline said in its statement.

“We are in contact with various social media platforms to either remove the video or make it clear that it is a digitally created footage, in order to avoid false and alarming information from circulating.”

The airline has also urged people to regard such videos “with utmost seriousness.”

These latest videos that are circulating on social media come at a time when the aviation industry is still reeling from two major air disasters that occurred toward the end of 2024, claiming hundreds of lives.

An Azerbaijan Airlines flight headed to Russia crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people. Another plane from South Korea’s Jeju Air crashed at Seoul airport, killing 179 passengers after it belly-landed, before crashing into a barrier at the end of the runway and bursting into flames.

On December 28, 2024, Halifax airport in Canada was closed for about 90 minutes after a plane arriving from St. John’s experienced a problem while landing, which saw the plane skid down the runway and part of it catch fire. There were no reports of injuries or casualties.