False: Government Flying Service did not hang a banner to support “genuine universal suffrage”

By Shan Li

An image of a helicopter flying over Lion Rock with a big banner displaying a symbol from the 2014 Umbrella Movement and the slogan “I want genuine universal suffrage” was posted on Facebook last week.

It was posted on a Facebook page called Vancouver Alliance Defending Hong Kong Democracy with a caption in Chinese, “Thank you, Government Flying Service of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for bravely expressing their views.” The post was shared 895 times and garnered 1,933 reactions within 12 hours.

This image is digitally manipulated. It is a composite of two pictures.

Numerous photos and videos show a large pro-democracy banner hanging from Lion Rock on Oct. 23, 2014.

A photo of a helicopter carrying firefighters and mountain rescue officers was taken by Apple Daily while the Fire Services Department removed the banner on Oct. 24, 2014.

According to the South China Morning Post, the helicopter was used to fly eight firefighters and five mountain rescue officers to the site.

A video clip showing the operation indicates that the banner was rolled up and taken away afterward.

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