Does the photo show an airplane view of plumes of smoke from an Ohio train derailment?

Claim:

A photo shows the view from an airplane flying above plumes of smoke coming from the Ohio train derailment on February 3, 2023.

Evaluation:

On February 14, 2023, a Reddit user posted an image with the caption, “Passenger photo while plane was flying near East Palestine, Ohio…chemical fire after train derailed.” The context of the photo was reportedly that it was taken from an airplane flying at cruising altitude, where black smoke from the Ohio train derailment was visible in the cloud layer below.

The post had garnered more than 130,000 points and shot to the front page of the site, making it one of the most popular posts of the day.

We approached the image with some caution as social media users have been known for fake or unrelated photos going viral following disasters. For example, we recently reported how several years old images were shared with the misleading claim that they were taken after the February 2023 earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

In this story, we’ve documented our attempt to uncover the origins of this and two other similar, seemingly ominous photos.

Photos of Controlled Burn

First, there’s no question that the February 3, 2023 train derailment resulted in massive amounts of smoke that filled the air around East Palestine, Ohio, not to mention various concerns about the environmental impact of the disaster. Such concerns were discussed in another Reddit post, which showed a different aerial image, one that we were able to authenticate as real.

In the days after the disaster, journalists and professional photographers shared several images taken from the ground that showed a massive plume of smoke coming from the site of the derailment. This smoke was the result of controlled combustion that was taking place. According to officials, the controlled release of toxic fumes was considered safer than the possibility of a large explosion.

On February 6th The Associated Press reported that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine had ordered temporary evacuations to allow for the controlled release of toxic fumes.

Officials warned that controlled burning would release phosgene and hydrogen chloride into the air. Phosgene is a highly toxic gas that can cause vomiting and breathing difficulties and was used as a weapon in World War I.

Norfolk Southern Railway’s Scott Deutsch previously said doing this during the day would allow the fumes to disperse more quickly and prevent the railroad cars from exploding and splinters and other debris flying through the neighborhood.

“We can’t control where that goes,” he said.

The process involves using a small charge to blast a hole in the cars, allowing the material to enter a ditch and burn off before being released into the air, he said. The crews handling the controlled release have done so safely before, Deutsch said.

Officer raised up the evacuation order two days later on February 8th.

A deleted tweet

As for the Reddit post claiming the photo was taken from an airplane, we found reason to dig deeper to see if it was authentically showing what it was showing.

The user who created the Reddit post later said in a comment“I didn’t take this photo — I found it on Twitter.” They then linked to the tweet from February 14th. However, that tweet has since been deleted.

According to archive Taking the tweet from the Google cache, the Twitter user who originally posted it shared the following caption: “This is a picture of an airplane flying over the territory of East Palestine on the day the chemicals stopped were released from the wagon.”

The original post

We finally found a February 13 tweet that showed the same photo along with another one. The user claimed, “This is more than #Ohio. I am across the lake (Lake Erie) in southern Ontario Canada at Niagara Falls and my family and I have been having a headache non stop for about 7 days. We can literally smell the chlorine here in Canada. That’s bigger than they tell us.

According to replies, this user had not yet responded to requests for information about the origin of the images.

Another Twitter user also reposted one of the photos, but later tweeted: “Note that the source was ‘from Reddit’ and his source was ‘from Twitter’ so it’s entirely possible this pic is a bunch of crap .”

A third photo also made the rounds, which allegedly also showed the same clouds.

Inconclusive results

In the end we found several tweets with user WHO was skeptical that these pictures really showed the smoke from the Ohio train derailment.

While it is entirely possible that these photos show the clouds over the disaster site, we note that we have not yet been able to find any information on who took the pictures. For example, if these had originally been posted to Facebook by a passenger on an airplane, that post likely would have gone viral by now, with multiple mentions from credible news organizations.

The lack of evidence doesn’t necessarily make something wrong. Rather, it simply means that it has not yet been proven. For now, we have chosen our Unsubstantiated rating, which is defined as follows: “This rating applies to a claim for which we have examined the available evidence but have been unable to come to a true or false finding, meaning that the evidence is not are conclusive or self-contradictory.”

Sources