The latest to be included in the bandwagon of celebrity death hoaxes after Shweta Tiwari and Aishwarya Rai Bachachan is the 51-year old heartthrob of the nation, Shah Rukh Khan. A European news network, El Pais TV, reported in a breaking news segment that Khan was travelling to Paris for a business meeting with his personal assistant and others in a private jet of model Gulfstream G550, and on encountering some turbulence, the plane crashed and all on board, including the actor, met their ends.
This media report is believed to have been sourced from news circulating on social media. The social media report also claimed that the France Civil Aviation Authority released a press statement condemning the actor’s death. This news report was actually picked up by legitimate news sources across France, including El Pais TV.
The news was widely circulated, and was believed to be true by the public. Shock and condolences began pouring in from all directions. SRK’s team was hard at work fielding calls and tweets enquiring about the legitimacy of the news. According to the Mumbai Mirror, Joint Commissioner of Mumbai Police Deven Bharti contacted Khan’s team and received assurance that the actor was hale and hearty and shooting for Aanand L Rai’s latest film in Mumbai.
The news, now clearly proven to be a hoax, was earlier believed to be true because it cited credible-seeming sources like France Civil Aviation Authority and the model of an aircraft belonging to France. It has been established that the alleged statement by the Aviation Authority was false. The hoax is most likely credited to a person looking to make quick money by planting a fake celebrity death on the Web. However, SRK fans can breathe a sigh of relief, as the actor has certainly not met his end and is working to enthrall us with his next venture.