Ethiopian Airlines, Most Passengers Coronavirus Infected: Fact Check

Story:

COVID19 | Coronavirus update | Ethiopian Airlines flight from Italy this evening to Addis Ababa – Most Passengers Coronavirus Infected.
The Ethiopian Airlines flight ?✈from Italy this evening to Addis Ababa airport. Most of the passengers are infected with the virus, and there is no strength except in God.

Image about Ethiopian Airlines, Most Passengers Coronavirus Infected

Other Versions

Video showing passengers dying at Italy airport due to Coronavirus

Fact Check:

The video is viral online amid Coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak alleging to show Most Passengers of an Ethiopian Airlines Flight are Infected. The short video appears to show many people in an Airport area coughing and struggling as the staff try to rescue them. However, the incident portrayed in the video is not real and explained here.

The Ethiopian Airlines flight ?✈from Italy this evening to Addis Ababa airport. Most of the passengers are infected with the virus, and there is no strength except in God.@Beinomugisha_Iv ,@MutebwaL pic.twitter.com/9DeLFKTJjW
— Muna kampala (@munakampala23) March 20, 2020

Not Ethiopian Airlines Passengers Coronavirus Infected

The fifteen-second video is doing rounds on various social media platforms allegedly showing the critical symptoms of novel Coronavirus before death. Slightly different version of the story claims the video shows passengers dying at Italy airport due to Coronavirus. It looks real also because of presence of apparent emergency Airport rescue staff operating in black and yellow suits. Despite the popularity of the video and the deadly claims, it is not real.

What you see in the video is in fact an exercise/drill of safety and security events Blaise Diagne de Diass International Airport (AIBD) organized on 28th November 2019. Longer version of the video also shows exercise of Airport security staff taking hostages into rescue. In the video above, AIBD officials explain the same about the event at Airport in Senegal, a country in West Africa. Likewise, it shows some glimpses from the event appearing in the video viral on social media with false claims.

Image of Safety and security exercise event at the AIBD Airport — Safety and security exercise event at the AIBD Airport

The logo in the short clipping is in fact taken from a video of Dakaractu TV. The original video rather describes the incident as full-scale test of the Dakar Blaise Diagne Airport emergency plan. Similarly, emergency drill videos like this often become viral on social media out of context.