On June 14, 2026, two helicopters collided over Rio de Janiero, Brazil, killing everyone on board, including the American alternative pop singer Oliver Tree.
As news of the incident spread, videos appeared online claiming to show the moment of the midair collision. Snopes readers searched the site looking to verify the authenticity of those videos.
We found that while some footage of the collision did exist, many of the videos showed two other midair collisions: one that happened in Malaysia in 2024 and another that occurred in Australia in 2023.
Because there is both real and mislabeled footage of the accident spreading online, Snopes has decided to not rate the claim to avoid creating additional confusion.
The real footage
To determine what footage was real, Snopes turned to trustworthy news outlets in both English and Portuguese. For instance, the BBC reported that the helicopters collided in the Recreio dos Bandeirantes neighborhood, while NBC News reported that debris from the helicopters landed in a car dealership and started a fire.
The Brazilian outlet g1 posted a video to X (archived) containing several interviews with eyewitnesses and firefighters, who described seeing a helicopter falling and lots of fire and smoke. That video also featured short clips of security camera footage that showed two helicopters colliding, as well as other angles showing one helicopter falling to the ground. CNN's coverage also featured one of those clips.
This footage is real — it was shared by legitimate news sources, and Snopes was able to geolocate two of the three clips to the Recreio dos Bandeirantes neighborhood of Rio de Janiero.
We geolocated the clip that appeared second in the g1 video to the intersection of Estrada Verdiador Alceu de Carvalho and Avenida das Americas by matching it to a version of the footage that wasn't zoomed in (archived). From there, we matched the buildings, the overpass and the stairs to confirm the exact intersection.
To geolocate the other clip, the third angle of the helicopter falling to the ground featured in the g1 video, we navigated down Avenida das Americas on Google Street View until we found the distinctive church seen in the footage, which was at the intersection of Rua Beth Lago and Avenida das Americas.
We were unable to geolocate the first clip.
The mislabeled footage
Many social media users, meanwhile, shared two clips that clearly showed two helicopters colliding.
In one of those clips, the helicopters appear to be over a stadium or another large lighting element. Users suggested the footage came from a 2024 helicopter crash in Malaysia, not the Rio crash. CNN aired footage of the accident in Malaysia in 2024, which clearly matched one of the clips spreading online. The below clip is therefore mislabeled:
The other clip we frequently saw showed a midair collision, a few high-rise buildings in the background and what appeared to be the back of a warehouse.
However, at least one of the helicopters in that video had a fully enclosed tail rotor, a unique design feature called a fenestron that is found on only a few helicopter models. Reporting from g1 provided the tail numbers of the helicopters involved, and searching for them revealed the aircraft involved were an Eurocopter AS350 B2 Ecureuil and a Bell 206B Jetranger, neither of which has a fenestron. Therefore, the footage did not show the Rio de Janiero crash.
The three most common helicopter models with a fenestron are the Eurocopter EC130, EC135 and EC145. Searching for midair collisions involving those models revealed a 2023 crash in Gold Coast, Australia, between two EC130s. Comparing the footage of that accident, which took place over the water near the SeaWorld amusement park, to Google Street View coverage from the area confirmed it matched the footage shared online in 2026. The footage below also was mislabeled: