Video of German pilot fired for refusing to spray chemtrails is satirical

The old chemtrail conspiracy theory has once again reared its head, as people share as factual a satirical German news report about a pilot who was fired for unfair dismissal.

In the viral video, a journalist reports on the pilot who claims Lufthansa fired him for refusing to drop harmful substances on the Europeans below.

Because of his actions, Lufthansa got in trouble with “secret world governments” and had to pay millions of euros in fines for breaking their contractual chemtrail obligations, according to a so-called expert in the report.

The video is often shared with captions claiming that it’s proof the alleged “elite” wants to fumigate and manipulate the public.

One post in particular has been seen more than half a million times as of the time of this report, and it’s been shared in other languages too.

Nevertheless, none of what it claims is true.

The chemtrail conspiracy theory is a long-running, factually incorrect claim that the vapour trails that planes leave in the sky are actually “chemtrails”, containing harmful chemicals that the “elite” uses to control the general public.

Some say the purpose of the chemtrails is to modify the weather, while others allege they can be used for psychological manipulation, population control or even chemical warfare.

The conspiracy theories have been discredited for years, and the video in question even has a note in Slovak that appears at the top left of the screen, describing chemtrails as such.

Turning to features of the viral report more specifically, a reverse image search from one of the frames in the video directs us to where it originally comes from — a German website called Der Postillon.

You can see that a watermark in the video also matches up with Der Postillon’s logo.

If you scroll down to the website’s FAQ page, the first question asks whether the content produced by Der Postillon is true.

The answer explicitly states that everything found on the site is satire and “a blatant lie”.

“Every character that appears is fictional, and any resemblance to living people is purely coincidental,” the website says. “This should actually be obvious, although numerous comments point out that much here is taken at face value.”