Are airplanes spraying toxic streams known as "chemtrails" on people as part of a "genocidal plot"? No, that's not true: Scientists who investigated this claim turned up no evidence that chemtrails exist. The social media post making the claim attempts to prove it with photos that purportedly show aircraft carrying huge barrels of noxious compounds - but these are actually ballast tanks that airplane manufacturers use during flight tests, filled with water.
The claim appeared in a Hungarian-language video posted on TikTok on May 30, 2023, under the caption "Chemtrail conspiracy theory Or reality, Parti 1 🇭🇺." The video shows a portion of an interview with Hungarian obstetrician János Horkovics-Kováts that was uploaded to Nexus TV, an internet channel, on February 15, 2023. Horkovics-Kováts said, according to translations by Lead Stories staff:
More and more patients are showing up at the clinic who are not only suffering from COVID or suffering from COVID vaccines, but also from chemtrails... This is a very significant factor in poisoning, the poisoning of humanity... Two kinds of trails can be seen [in the sky]. There are the short trails behind planes that generally disappear in one or two minutes. These are actually condensation trails. But there are trails behind planes that follow them for up to 30 kilometers in length... It is from here that the poisoning comes down onto us... It's also worth knowing that this spraying is happening in 42 countries around the world... so that means the poisoning, the genocide, is happening with the consent of the given country.
Here is a screenshot from the TikTok video taken at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Aug 18 09:43:06 2023 UTC)
In 2016, Environmental Research Letters, an open-source periodical, published a peer-reviewed survey that asked scientists who study the condensation trails left behind by airplanes, or "contrails," whether chemtrails are real. The authors reported:
76 of the 77 scientists (98.7%) that took part in this study said they had not encountered evidence of [chemtrails], and that the data cited as evidence could be explained through other factors, including well-understood physics and chemistry associated with aircraft contrails and atmospheric aerosols.
[Chemtrail] proponents have argued that condensation trails should evaporate quickly, and therefore persistent trails of varying lengths indicate differences in how much and/or how long aircraft have been spraying chemicals. In contrast... 80% of the contrail experts stated that the larger trail in the photo was likely in an area of higher humidity, while... 71% indicated that the thicker and longer size of the larger trail was related to greater altitude. Some experts also suggested that different types of aircraft may have made the trails and that their fuel efficiencies may have differed (10% and 12%, respectively), either of which could also affect the size and density of the condensation trail.
Changes in aircraft technologies may be causing contrails to persist longer than they used to, and changes in industrial development could potentially be increasing aerosol deposition in some areas. But the focus on a secret, large-scale atmospheric spraying program may be taking attention away from real, underlying problems that need addressing.
The Nexus TV video also shows three photos of aircraft laden with huge tanks, which Horkovics-Kováts claims are filled with chemical agents. However, the containers in one of these photos are nearly identical to those that appear on the website of airplane manufacturer Boeing, which explains:
During flight testing of a new airplane model, barrels filled with water serve as a ballast system to test the center of gravity on the ground and during flight. The barrels can be moved forward or aft to test the system.
Horkovics-Kováts says the first photo shows a man who is responsible for installing the toxic tanks on Boeing's planes. The image also appeared in a February 8, 2013, comment on Metabunk.org, which says it shows a pilot visiting a Boeing 777 test plane in 1994.
(Source: Image download from Metabunk.org on Fri Aug 18 10:48:16 2023 UTC)
The second photo can be found in an amateur pilot's blog post on gaming site X-Plane.com, dated May 12, 2005.
(Source: X-Plane.com screenshot taken on Fri Aug 18 10:55:32 2023 UTC)
The third photo shows former German Chancellor Angela Merkel inspecting an Airbus A 350 test plane at the ILA Berlin Airshow on May 20, 2014. The photo is available on the German Federal Government's website.
(Source: Image download from Bundesregierung.se on Fri Aug 18 11:06:17 2023 UTC)
Other Lead Stories fact-checks about chemtrails are available here.
