A collage with a group of images is being shared on social media claiming that a plane carrying 40 missionaries recently crashed but all passengers inside the plane have survived the crash. The images shared show the visuals of a crashed private jet. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Images of a crashed private jet that was carrying 40 missionaries.
Fact: These images show old photos of crashed Gulfstream G200 Galaxy Corporate Jet in Honduras. This private jet suffered a runway excursion while landing at the Toncontin International airport in 2018. This private jet was carrying four passengers and two pilots onboard during the crash. All the six occupants were Americans and suffered minor injuries in this accident. It is nowhere reported that a plane carrying 40 missionaries suffered a crash and all of them have survived the accident. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
On reverse image search of the photos shared in the post, similar images were found in an article published by the ‘BBC’ news website on 23 May 2018. This article reported that the Gulfstream 200 commercial aircraft had skidded off the runway and crashed at Toncontin International airport in Honduras’s capital, Tegucigalpa. This incident reportedly took place on 22 May 2018. According to this article, six Americans were injured in this crash and no fatalities were reported. Reporting the same, several news websites have published articles. They can be read here, here, and here.
When we searched for more details using these keywords, we found the complete details of this accident on ‘The Aviation Network’ website. This website reported that the Gulfstream G200 Galaxy Corporate Jet had suffered a runway excursion while landing at the Toncontin International airport in 2018. According to ‘The Aviation Network’ website reports, the crashed private jet plane had departed with four passengers and two pilots on board from the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Texas, USA. ‘The Aviation Network’ reported that the aircraft was completely destroyed but the occupants survived with minor injuries. More visuals of the destroyed Gulfstream G200 Galaxy jet plane can be seen here.
On 23 May 2018, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández tweeted about this accident. In the tweet, Juan Orlando Hernández informed that no fatalities were reported in this accident and declared that all injured passengers and crew are stable. It is nowhere reported that a plane carrying 40 missionaries had suffered a crash and all of them have survived the accident.
To sum it up, the US private jet that crashed in Honduras was not carrying 40 missionaries at the time of the accident.
