Video shows firefighting plane crashing in Chile, not Los Angeles

An illegal drone collided with a plane fighting Los Angeles fires on January 9, but there have been no reports of a crash involving such an aircraft, contrary to claims on social media. Dramatic footage spread online showing a plane plunging to the ground was in fact filmed in Chile in January 2024.

"An aircraft helping to extinguish a fire in the American city of Los Angeles suddenly lost control and crashed," read a Hindi-language X post that shared the video on January 11.

The footage shows a plane spiralling to the ground before it catches fire and smashes into the road.

The clip spread in similar posts on X and Facebook as major wildfires devoured neighbourhoods around Los Angeles, razing homes and forcing thousands to flee to safety.

The blazes in America's second-biggest city have left at least two dozen people dead and large areas of the city in ruins (archived link).

While one firefighting aircraft was grounded after colliding with an illegal drone, there have been no official reports of any planes battling the fires crashing (archived link).

Deadly Chile crash

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video found a similar clip posted on the verified Facebook page of Australia's 9News on January 17, 2024 (archived link).

The falsely shared video appears to be a mirrored version of the 9News clip.

Its caption read: "A firefighting plane has clipped a powerline and crashed into a major highway in Chile, killing the pilot and injuring four bystanders."

Below are screenshot comparisons of the mirrored video falsely shared online (left) and the 9News clip (right):

Various news organisations shared the footage in reports about the crash, including Turkish public broadcaster TRT World, Britain's Telegraph newspaper and Al Jazeera (archived here, here and here).

According to the reports, the disaster unfolded near the Panguilemo Aerodrome in Chile's Maule region on January 15, 2024.

Google Street View imagery of a stretch of road near the aerodrome matches footage from the crash (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the crash video (left) and Google Street View imagery (right), with corresponding elements highlighted by AFP:

AFP has debunked other false claims about the wildfires in Los Angeles here, here and here.