Old Video of Iranian Pres Raisi Shared as 'Last Moments Before Helicopter Crash'

Fact-check: An old video of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is going viral to claim that it shows the footage from the helicopter before it crashed.

(Photo: The Quint)

A video showing Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi sitting inside a helicopter is going viral on social media to claim that it shows moments before his chopper crashed.

This comes after Raisi died in a tragic mishap when his helicopter crashed near the Azerbaijan border. The death of Raisi and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was confirmed on Monday, 20 May by the Iranian military.

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: Instagram/screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)

What's the truth?: This video dates back to January 2024 and is not recent, as claimed.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on Google and came across a post shared on X (formerly Twitter) on 18 January 2024.

• This was shared by Iran's official news agency, Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

• The caption stated that Raisi was on an ariel visit to Nimroud Dam in Iran's Firozkoh city.The viral video showing snow covered mountains from the window of the chopper also matched with this.

• It is important to note that Raisi's recent crash was amidst a green and forest covered mountainous areas.

We also found reports Iranian news websites like Mehran News and Iranian Students' News Agency which mention Raisi's visit to the construction site of the Nimroud Reservoir Dam.

Conclusion: An old video of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is going viral to claim that it shows the footage from the helicopter before it crashed.

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