Fact-check: Did a Malawian man attempt to sneak into South Sudan by hanging on a plane’s wing from Malawi?

No, the man was not a Malawian but a Nigerian in Lagos at the Murtala Muhammed International airport enroute to Port  Har-court.

Writer: Ghai Aketch

Earlier this week, a claim showing an image of a man hanging on plane’s wing published by Smart Family TV went viral  in South Sudan captioned as: 

“Malawian man was seen hanging on the wing of an aeroplane and said he wanted to travel abroad seeking a better life, the plane was from Malawi to Juba, South Sudan,” the post reads. 

Screenshot of the post on Facebook

However, our reverse image and keywords searches returned the same image of a Nigerian man who illegally accessed the runway and climbed on a plane’s wing when it was preparing for a take off at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on 19 July 2019. 

According to the Azman Airline, the pilot radioed the security after the authorised man was struggling to access the plane’s cabin, posing danger to the passengers on board. 

According to reports, he climbed on the plane’s wings after dropping his bag in the engine. Fortunately, a passenger on board was quick to capture the unexpected scene on 19 July 2019 that went viral. 

The man was later identified by the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria as a Nigerian-born Usman Adamu while in police custody at that time.  

Conclusion:

The information purporting South Sudan and Malawi is false. The original publications clearly indicated the Azman Airline was enroute to Port Har-court. But not Juba, South Sudan.

This fact check was published by 211 Check with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and the African Fact-Checking Alliance.