As the United States and the Philippines kicked off their largest-ever joint military exercise in the South China Sea in April 2023, an old video of a helicopter crashing into the sea was viewed tens of thousands of times in Chinese-language posts with a false claim that it shows a US military aircraft accident in the disputed waters. As of May 6, 2023, there have been no reports of such an incident. The clip in fact shows a December 1999 disaster off the coast of San Diego in the US state of California

"The US military intruded into our South China Sea, [where] a helicopter fell into the ocean after its left rear wheel got caught on the metal railing on the aircraft carrier," reads a post on Weibo published on April 22, 2023 written in simplified Chinese.

The accompanying 29-second video was viewed more than 70,000 times. It shows a helicopter falling into the ocean after failing to land properly on the deck of a ship.

Screenshot of the false post, captured on May 1, 2023

The claim circulated as the United States and the Philippines held a two-week joint military exercise from April 11 to 26 in the South China Sea to counter Beijing's growing assertiveness in the region (archived link).

China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea despite an international court ruling that the assertion has no legal basis.

Led by the United States, Western militaries regularly conduct "freedom of navigation operations" with warships and aircraft to assert the...

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