On July 24, deadly border clashes erupted near the disputed Preah Vihear/Ta Muen Thom area on the Thai-Cambodian border with heavy rocket fire, F‑16 airstrikes, and artillery exchanges, killing dozens and displacing over 130,000 people.
In the above context, a video has gone viral on social media in which we can see an aircraft crash. The image is shared with a caption suggesting that it shows the Cambodian army downing a F-16 fighter jet of Thailand amid the war. A social media user shared the image with a caption that reads, “A Royal Thai Air Force F-16 fighter jet was shot down by Cambodian forces amid escalating border tensions, a trusted source confirmed today.”
SouthCheck found that the claim is false. The video is old and is of a helicopter crash in Thailand.
On a Google reverse image search, we found that the same video was shared by The Straits Times on May 24. The caption associated with the image reads, “The Bell 212 helicopter belonging to the Kanchanaburi Police Aviation Unit came down near a village in Prachuap Khiri Khan province.”
According to the report, a Bell 212 police helicopter crashed near Nong Kok village in Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand, on May 24, killing two pilots and a mechanic.
We found that the image was also shared by a Facebook page on May 24. We compared the screenshot of the viral image with the image shared in the Facebook post. We can see the wings thrown on the remnants of the jet on the side of the burning plane, with the coconut tree in the background.
The incident was also shared by MSNews on May 26. According to the report, a Royal Thai Police helicopter crashed and exploded in mid-air in southern Thailand, killing three officers on board. The incident happened near an airbase in Prachuap Khiri Khan’s Mueang.
Moreover, according to a report by The Nation, published on July 24, the Royal Thai Air Force refuted the claims of Cambodian media that an F-16 aircraft had been shot down.
Hence, we can ascertain that the viral claim is false.
