Fact Checking
Mike deGruy died in chopper crash, not for sinister reasons
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Did filmmaker Mike deGruy die for exposing hidden truths he found underwater? A viral Facebook video suggests so.
“This is why exposing the truth is scary!!” the text on an April 12 video read. In the next scene, a computer-generated voice says “people who expose the truth.” After that, the post shows a clip of deGruy speaking about his work filming underwater in the Gulf of Mexico for the BBC’s 2001 “Blue Planet” series.
The filmmaker discussed the wonders of an underwater brine lake he and his crew members saw and their difficulties filming it. The video then flashes text about deGruy’s 2012 death in a helicopter crash and ends with the scene of a helicopter crash in a field.
The Facebook video was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
But deGruy’s death is neither conspiratorial nor linked to his deep-sea filming of this brine lake. DeGruy died Feb. 4, 2012, in a helicopter crash in Australia 11 years after “Blue Planet” was released. DeGruy, 60, died alongside Australian filmmaker Andrew Wight, 52, who was piloting the helicopter. Both were collaborators with “Titanic” director James Cameron, and the trio shared a passion for undersea exploration.
Similar claims have been shared on TikTok and have drawn thousands of comments.
The crash happened because the pilot’s door wasn’t properly closed before takeoff from an aerodrome, an Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigation found. “It says the pilot probably let go of the cyclic control while trying to close the door, causing the nose to pitch up, and the tail to hit the ground,” the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
DeGruy was not the first to discover brine lakes, pools of toxic, highly salty water caused by “the dissolution of buried salt deposits,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The specific lake he filmed had been found several years before the documentary. Scientists have discovered brine lakes elsewhere, including the Red Sea and other parts of the Gulf of Mexico.
We rate the claim that Mike deGruy died for “exposing the truth” Pants on Fire!
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