Fact Check: Old video of rescue operation in Pacific Ocean falsely being circulated as that of Cyclone Biparjoy
Biparjoy, a cyclonic storm that formed in the Arabian Sea, has gradually intensified. The activity of the storm is increasing at Mumbai coast. It also hit the coasts of Saurashtra- Kutch.
Biparjoy, a cyclonic storm that formed in the Arabian Sea, has gradually intensified. The activity of the storm is increasing at Mumbai coast. It also hit the coasts of Saurashtra- Kutch.
Meanwhile, several old videos are in circulation claiming to be showing destruction due to Cyclone Biparjoy. A video of the rescue operation of a boat drowning in seawater is in circulation with the claim that it was shot in the Arabian Sea during Cyclone Biparjoy.
Fact Check:
The claim is false. The video is from February 2023 and it shows the rescue operation in the Pacific Ocean by the United States Coast Guard.
When we performed Google reverse image search on the extracted key frames, we found that the video was widely in circulation in February 2023, when a rookie U.S. Coast Guard swimmer rescued a man from the ocean.
The video was shared by USA Today on February 3, 2023, with the title “Huge wave capsizes boat as rookie U.S coast guard swimmer rescues man from the ocean.
The video was also shared by the AP archive YouTube channel with the same title. The video states that the Coast Guard swimmer managed to locate the man in the surf and pulled him to safety.
Times of India which shared the video, states that a newly minted coast guard rescue swimmer saved a man’s life at the mouth of the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington states just after a giant wave rolled the yacht he was piloting and threw him into the surf.
Therefore, the viral video shows a yacht drowning in the Pacific Ocean while the person in the yacht was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard. The claim that it was shot during Cyclone Biparjoy in the Arabian Sea is false.
