At the beginning of December 2023, many media outlets and social media users shared a video in which a business jet got stuck in snowdrifts in an unnatural position. We checked whether this plane was actually heading to the climate summit in Dubai.
As a result of heavy snowfall that hit Europe on the night of December 2, air traffic in Munich was paralyzed. Amid the news of the cancellation of hundreds of flights, a 25-second video went viral on the Internet, in which you can see a plane flipping over on its tail at the airfield. Workers are scurrying around the aircraft, trying to return the fuselage frozen to the ground to its natural position. As stated in numerous publications, ironically, this particular business jet was supposed to fly to the global warming summit, which is taking place these days in Dubai.
This information was disseminated by such publications as “News", "Arguments and facts", "Komsomolskaya Pravda", "Central News Service", "Moskovsky Komsomolets", "Business Online", Ukrainian "Channel 24"and Belarusian TV channel ONT. Among the Telegram channels that shared the video are “Ax 18+"(1.6 million views at the time of writing this analysis), "Live broadcast"(662,000), "Before everyone else. Well almost"(657,000), "Ukraine now: news, war, Russia"(400,000), VPS (356,000), "Dmitry Nicotin» (327,000) and Nexta Live (314,000).
By data weather services, on the night of December 1 to 2, more than 40 cm of snow fell in Bavaria. As local news agencies reported, something like this had not happened here since the 1930s. At the region's busiest airport - Munich — delays and cancellations affected 760 flights.
The spread of the video of the crashed plane began on the afternoon of December 2, largely thanks to social network user X @RyanMaye, whose tweet (published at 17:23 Moscow time) received more than 2 million views. The author's caption read: "Private planes in Munich heading to a global warming conference in Dubai literally froze on the runway, which turned into a glacier."
However, if you look into publication account @aviationbrk, which @RyanMaye refers to, then we will not see any mention of the conference in Dubai, but simply: “Meanwhile in Munich.” This blogger, who regularly publishes videos of emergency situations in aviation, in turn, indicated user @schoko131 as the source of the video.
Today's publication @schoko131 unavailable, but her reposts on other platforms also do not contain any mention of events in the UAE. Sylvia Kossligk, the owner of the account, indicated her place of residence Hallbergmoos - a community that directly borders Munich Airport, and it operates, according to the profile in LinkedIn, in a medical company serving the airport. Therefore, the author of the video could well have been Kossligk herself or one of her acquaintances.
The next day, senior airport spokesman Henner Euting confirmed to the publication Merkur.dethat the incident with the plane falling on its tail actually happened and was caused by heavy snowfall. According to Oyting, firefighters leveled the aircraft's position. At the same time, the representative of the press service found it difficult to say where this plane was heading, saying only that it was a private plane.
In the still frames from the video posted by Kossligk and subsequently circulated on the social network X, you can see the tail number of the aircraft: OE-HUB.
On the portal Flightaware, which allows you to track the movements of aircraft, there is a plane with the same number, and its last landing took place on November 15 in Munich, where it arrived from Antwerp. The BRJ273 business jet of the Cessna Citation X model belongs to the Austrian company Bairline Fluggesellschaft and can be rented anyone who wants it.
"Verified" contacted Niko Yustom, who manages the company's charter sales. He confirmed that the emergency situation happened specifically with BRJ273 (OE-HUB). The extent of the damage is currently being determined, but it will take at least a month to restore the ship. According to Just, the plane was permanently parked at Munich Airport and had no scheduled flights. Flights to Dubai were not scheduled for either this or any other airline vessel in late November - early December.
As for the event in the UAE, these days the 28th UN Climate Change Conference is taking place in Dubai (COP28). Global warming is just one of the many topics that summit participants plan to discuss. Started it is still on November 30, two days before the viral video is published, and will last until December 12. At the same time, “Verified” did not find in open sources any evidence of a delay for COP28 by delegations or individual participants from Germany or another country due to snowfall in Munich, although this cannot be completely ruled out.
Thus, the viral video was indeed filmed in Munich, but a representative of the company that owns the plane denied information about the disrupted flight to Dubai.
Cover photo: screenshots from the video
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