Fact Check: Viral photo of 1500 private jets at WEF 2022 in Davos is actually from 2016
India Today
The viral photo of 1500 private jets were passenger jets parked at the Swiss Airforce base in Duebendorf, Switzerland on January 21, 2016.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland 2022 has just concluded. Nearly 100 participants and dozens of political leaders from India attended the event and presented the country’s position on the energy situation, food security, and health equity there.
Amid this, a photo of parked jets has gone viral on social media with the claim that a record 1,500 private jets arrived at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland to discuss what they can do about our carbon footprint.
The India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found that this photo was not from the WEF 2022. These were passenger jets parked at the Swiss Airforce base in Duebendorf, Switzerland on January 21, 2016. This airport is used for the arrivals and departures of participants of the WEF.
The viral posts are archived here and here.
A reverse image search led us to a 2019 report in The Guardian. The report about the WEF titled, “Record private jet flights into Davos as leaders arrive for climate talks,” used the same photo that was credited to Reuters.
We found the original photo on the Reuters website. It dates back to 2016 and was shot by Arnd Wiegmann.
The caption read, “Passenger jets are parked at the Swiss Airforce base in Duebendorf, Switzerland January 21, 2016. The airport Duebendorf in Duebendorf is used for arrivals and departures of participants of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.”
