In GhanaFact’s first piece debunking online misinformation peddled about the August 6 crash, we revealed how a photo from an Indian crash was portrayed online as recent, plus how an image and video from a helicopter mishap in 2024 at Bonsukrom were also misleadingly recirculated (read here).
In this installment, we tackle two videos purportedly related to the incident – one about the exact moment the helicopter crashed and the other about a claim that the wife of one of the deceased has granted an interview hours after her husband’s death was confirmed.
Claim 1 – Video showing the moment the helicopter crashed
In the late hours of August 6, 2025, a Facebook user shared a short video clip allegedly portraying the moment the helicopter, which had 8 persons onboard, crashed into a forest in the Ashanti Region.
A three-second video (archived here) showed the helicopter spinning uncontrollably before crashing, further displaying graphics content from a burning scene of the recently crashed helicopter.
In the caption, the Facebook user wrote: “very unfortunate scene. How the helicopter came down,” with the post gathering 197k views, 108 likes, and 22 comments.
This fact-check will verify whether the video is related to the August 6, 2025, crash in the Adansi Akrofuom District of the Ashanti Region.
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Fact-check
To fact-check the claim, GhanaFact first used the InVID Verification tool to break down the video into key frames. This allowed the team to get key snapshots from the video.
Next, we ran the key fragments through Google Reverse Image Search, which revealed that the video is not recent and is unrelated to the August 6 crash in Ghana.
GhanaFact traced the video to a March 2023 incident in Colombia, when a military helicopter crashed in the country’s Choco province.
It was a 33-second video (archived here) first posted on Facebook by Vanguardia, a news publishing website in Colombia, with the caption that translated to: “A helicopter crash in Chocó was captured on video. Four National Army soldiers were killed.”
GhanaFact investigation further found reports about the crash (here, here, here, and here).
Verdict
Therefore, the video attributed to Ghana’s August 6 crash is False.
Claim 2 – Video claiming Murtala’s wife had spoken following his demise
A video circulated by multiple accounts on Facebook purported to show the wife of the late Tamale Central Member of Parliament, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, granting an interview at their residence in Accra hours after his death in the helicopter crash was confirmed on August 6.
The post shows photos of the late MP and his wife at the top, and a video of his supposed wife speaking with a Channel One TV journalist below, which was labelled “Honourable Murtala’s wife” on the reel.
The woman in the video is heard saying: “It is not easy, comrade Murtala, as he wants to be called, he doesn’t want to be called an honourable but a comrade.”
When asked about her fondest memories of the deceased, she added: “It is watching on social media reciting Qur’an.”
But was she the widow of the late MP and Environment Minister?
Fact-check
GhanaFact via Google Reverse Image Search found the original video of the interview as shared on Channel One TV’s YouTube page. The caption of the video read: “My Fondest Memory Was Watching Him Recite the Qur’an” – Close Friend of Alhaji Murtala Mohammed.
Verdict
From the above, the claim that the woman in the video was the wife of the late MP is False.
