Video of an aircraft hijacking drill in Mexico shared as real on social media

by Jignesh Patel

A video of an aircraft supposedly hijacked in Mexico has gone viral on Twitter. In the video, several masked, armed men can be seen roaming inside the plane while the passengers have their arms above their seats. Twitter user Primo posted the video with the message, “A plane got hijacked with passengers in Mexico hope everyone is safe”. It has garnered more than 34,000 retweets so far.

One more user tweeted the video with an identical claim.

FACT-CHECK

Alt News found that this video depicts a ‘real-scale aircraft hijacking simulation’, in other words, a drill. By looking at the comments below the video, we found an article published by a Mexican news site Vanguardia. According to the report, the drill was conducted in an Interjet airline at Mexico’s Ciudad del Carmen International Airport.

Earlier in October, Interjet had also put out a statement in which they said that an aircraft of their company participated in a ‘real-scale simulation’ held at the airport on October 5.

“Authorities from the three levels of government coordinated to implement the protocols for passenger rescue. In this way, the videos that circulate in social networks and where an Interjet plane is observed were recorded during this drill”, reads the statement issued by the airline on October 7, 2019.

The Mirror UK reported that the airline was forced to release a statement saying videos circulating on social media of a ‘hijacking’ on one of its flights was actually a drill. The drill video was also reported by Mexican News channel Imagen Televisión.

Airport operator Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares, or ASA, a federal government-owned corporation, issued a clarification about the video when it went viral earlier in October. The authorities thanked Interjet and its CEO William Shaw for “the facilities and great support granted for the real-scale simulation: Aircraft hijacking”. On October 7, Shaw tweeted about a meeting where results of the drill conducted by the airport of Ciudad del Carmen in coordination with ASA were analysed.

In conclusion, a video of drill conducted in an aeroplane in Mexico was falsely shared with the claim that it was actually hijacked.

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About the Author

Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.