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Strong winds blew paratroopers off course in Honduras, not Uganda
If Your Time is short
- This happened in Honduras in September, not Uganda in October.
Parasailers swoop around a stadium and make an unforgettable landing in a video circulating on social media. Some drop unceremoniously into crowded stands. Another crashes into a portable toilet.
"Paratroopers landed in #various undesired places as they tried to #showcase while marking the 60th independence day," a recent Instagram post sharing the video said. "#Uganda #paratroopers miss #target, land in #mobile #toilet, roof, into the crowd instead of landing on the field during the country’s 60th independence celebration."
This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
Featured Fact-check
Uganda did celebrate Independence Day on Oct. 9, marking 60 years since its independence from the British Empire in 1962. But this video doesn’t show a botched display by paratroopers there.
Rather, the paratroopers were trying to land in José de la Paz Herrera Uclés stadium in Honduras for a celebration of the country’s 201st Independence Day on Sept. 15. Strong winds were blamed for blowing the paratroopers off course.
We rate claims that this happened in Honduras False.
Our Sources
Instagram post Oct. 25, 2022
Daily Mail, Honduran special forces display goes horribly wrong as four parachutists crash in front of screaming crowds with one slamming into toilets and another left dangling on stadium roof, Oct. 13, 2022
CNN, Paracaidistas caen sobre el público durante celebración de la Independencia de Honduras, Sept. 15, 2022
Barking & Dagenham, Uganda Independence Day marked for the first time on country’s 60th anniversary of becoming a republic, Oct. 7, 2022
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Strong winds blew paratroopers off course in Honduras, not Uganda
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