Rio Helicopter Crash: Real Footage Mislabeled Online

A devastating mid-air collision involving two helicopters over Rio de Janeiro on June 14, 2026, led to the deaths of all on board. In the wake of the incident, numerous videos circulated online purporting to show the crash. However, many of these clips were mislabeled, depicting separate helicopter accidents that occurred in Malaysia in 2024 and Australia in 2023.

To verify the footage, legitimate news outlets provided authentic video evidence confirming the Rio de Janeiro crash. This real footage, geolocated to the Recreio dos Bandeirantes neighborhood, showed the helicopters colliding and falling to the ground. Conversely, mislabeled videos featured distinct geographical or helicopter design elements, such as fenestrons, not present in the Rio incident. Due to the widespread dissemination of both accurate and misleading content, Snopes chose not to rate the claims to avoid exacerbating public confusion.