Breaking news moves fast, and mistakes are inevitable.
But in today’s media landscape, one error can spread like wildfire, amplified by outlets worldwide rushing to cover a major story. That’s exactly what happened following the crash of American Eagle Flight 5342 — an American Airlines subsidiary — near Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night.
A false report from a Russian state news agency quickly spiraled into a widely circulated narrative in the U.S.
Shortly after midnight Thursday, Russia’s state-owned RIA Novosti reported on Telegram that American figure skater Jon Maravilla had been set to board the doomed flight. The claim seemed plausible — many figure skaters and coaches were confirmed to be on board, returning from the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the recent U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas.
RIA Novosti alleged that Maravilla was denied boarding due to the size of his dog.
Here is a Google Translate version of that.
American figure skater John Maravilla told RIA Novosti that he was not allowed onto the plane that crashed at the airport because of his dog.
During registration, the athlete was told that his dog was too big to be carried, so Maravilla ultimately decided to go by car.
That was quickly picked up by U.S. outlets, including Newsweek, TMZ, The Daily Beast, KDFW (the Dallas Fox affiliate), as well as British outlets such as The Times. But Maravilla was not talking about that plane.
Update, 01/31: Some of the confusion here was around the question of if RIA Novosti actually talked to Maravilla or just went off his Instagram Stories, as described below. RIA Novosti did make a later post solely viewable in the Telegram app where they said “On board the plane that crashed in the United States there were at least 14 skaters, not counting coaches, American figure skater John Maravilla told RIA Novosti. ‘I don’t want to name names, but there were about 14 skaters on the plane, not including their parents, and several coaches. Such a tragedy.'” So that does seem like they’re at least representing that they talked to him. But it’s strange that if they did, they managed to get what flight he was supposed to be on so wrong. There could be translation issues or other factors at play, but they certainly missed a key detail.
As per those Instagram Stories, Maravilla posted an image from inside Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport with the caption, “Not allowed past gate to board flight…get me tf out of Kansas please,” followed by another post reading, “14-hour journey begins.”
People on social media started interpreting that as evidence that Maravilla was supposed to be on the flight that crashed. One example of that speculation came from the Instagram account fs. delight, as screenshotted by The Daily Beast:
But, as Maravilla later told The Daily Beast for their updated story (by Sean Craig and Josh Fiallo), he was talking about an entirely different flight on a different airline.
Jon Maravilla said his dog’s size was the reason a gate agent denied him boarding for a flight on Delta Air Lines to Atlanta—not to the nation’s capital.
That contradicts what Russian media wrote about the tragedy. RIA Novosti reported Maravilla was informed his dog could not be carried on a flight from Wichita to Washington because of size restrictions. Unable to board the plane, the outlet reported that he departed by car.
Maravilla is a native of Virginia, he told the Daily Beast, but now lives in the midwest. He said he was catching a flight to Atlanta before connecting on a second flight to Detroit. He said he did not know where the false reports about boarding a flight to Washington came from, but said he was devastated by the fate of his friends.
“I still can’t believe it,” he said. “I was just with them watching them have lots of fun and just enjoying their time.”
It’s not hard to see how this mix-up happened.
Maravilla was at the development camp alongside many of the people who were on this flight, and his Instagram account made it clear that he was in the airport that night and had been denied boarding. On their own, those details might not be enough for many news agencies to definitively connect those dots. But once a news agency reported that it had spoken with him, that claim became the missing piece.
But it’s worth having some skepticism over a report originating from a Russian state news agency.
In the sports world alone over the past few years, it’s been remarkable how misleading Russian-originating reporting and other information (including even a bogus “Olympics Has Fallen” documentary with an AI deepfake version of Tom Cruise) has muddled stories.
Granted, basing a report on RIA Novesti is better than running with a fake claim from a fake social media account — something that’s happened with “missed flight” stories before. But, this should have perhaps raised more red flags before U.S. outlets fully ran with it.
Yes, stories from people who narrowly missed something that turned tragic always get a lot of attention. But they should be carefully checked before media amplification.
Of course, misinformation isn’t exclusive to Russian sources. Even university press releases sometimes misrepresent key facts. Reporting on fatalities is particularly challenging, as details evolve quickly, and even official sources can be inaccurate. (One particular example there comes from Chris Myers, who once recalled how he narrowly avoided repeating an inaccurate fatality report from a police officer after the 1996 Olympic bombing.)
Still, connecting many dots here was a bad look for several media outlets. And it reminded us how important it is to take care in these instances.
