A photograph shows the wing of a Ryanair aircraft covered in silver tape with a suggestion that it is regular duct tape.
Ryanair confirmed this is not one of its planes. The silver tape is ‘speed tape’, which is used in the aviation industry for temporary, minor repairs such as peeling paint.
A Facebook post sharing a photograph of an aircraft wing covered in silver tape falsely suggests it shows a Ryanair plane.
The post, which has over 4,300 likes and 300 shares, says: “This is our last time flying with Ryanair!!!!!”
The photograph shows an aircraft wing taken from a passenger window during a flight. The wing is covered in patches of silver tape resembling household duct tape.
However, this does not show a Ryanair flight. A spokesperson from the airline told Full Fact: “This is not a Ryanair aircraft.”
There are many examples of the photograph across social media with the earliest we found appearing on Facebook on 5 April 2023. We've not been able to confirm the original source of the photograph.
However, very similar images appear in an article published on 25 April about a Qantas flight travelling from London to Perth. These photographs show an aircraft wing with the same patches of tape but from different angles.
Another article from September 2022 shows a different photograph of a Qantas aircraft that has similar, but fewer, patches of tape. Australian fact checkers, CheckMate, reported that the photograph taken last September most likely shows a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. This model reportedly experienced an issue with peeling paint, which could explain the use of tape.
A Boeing spokesperson told aviation industry publication Simple Flying that the peeling paint “was a cosmetic issue only”.
The spokesperson said: "We are aware of this issue and have been working closely with our customers to address it. It is a cosmetic issue only, as the peeling does not affect the structural integrity of the wing, and does not affect the safety of flight.”
Full Fact has contacted both Qantas and Boeing for a comment and will update the article if we receive any responses.
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The tape in the photograph appears to be an aluminium-based material known as speed tape, which is used in a range of industries including aviation. One version of the tape is reported to withstand exposure to flame, weathering, moisture and UV.
The Washington Post previously reported that a US Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson said speed tape is used “for temporary, minor repairs to nonstructural aircraft components” such as weathering and peeling paint.
False claims like this can create alarm and cause people to feel disproportionately unsafe. It is important to check if information is true before sharing it—you can read our guides to identifying misleading images and videos here and here.
We have written before about other false claims relating to aircraft, including that a photograph shows the disappeared Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in the ocean and that a video shows the final moments of an Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed in 2019.
Image courtesy of Michael C
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because Ryanair confirmed this is not one of its aircraft.
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