On April 1, 2021, TMZ.com published the headline: "Plane Crashes During Gender Reveal, Killing Two." The story from Cancun, Mexico, was published on April Fools' Day. Unfortunately, this news was not a prank.
Video was first published on March 30. It showed a brief celebration before the airplane crashed into the water:
KHOU reported that two people on board were killed after the Cessna plane revealed the sex of the baby to be a girl to onlookers below, apparently either through a banner or pink smoke. The expectant parents and guests were on a boat nearby to watch the flyover:
A plane crashed in a lagoon in Cancun, Mexico Tuesday, killing the two pilots on board, multiple news outlets reported. The crash happened shortly after the plane was involved in a gender-reveal stunt, but it's unknown if that was the cause of the crash.
The expecting parents and guests watched from a boat on Nichupte Lagoon when the plane was carrying a banner revealing the child was a girl, according to Global News. But a separate report from ABC News indicated there was pink smoke coming from the plane to indicate the reveal.
As this video from the boat shows, the plane then passed by and its nose went down before crashing into the water. One person reportedly died in the crash while the other was rescued, but later died.
This was not the first time a plane crashed during a gender reveal party. In 2019, The Associated Press and others reported that a plane went down in Turkey, Texas, after spraying hundreds of gallons of pink water:
A newly released report has found a September plane crash in West Texas occurred when the pilot’s crop-duster stalled out after dumping hundreds of gallons of pink water during a couple’s gender reveal celebration.
One passenger suffered minor injuries when the plane crashed Sept. 7 near the town of Turkey, about 260 miles (420 kilometers) northwest of Dallas. A National Transportation Safety Board report released Thursday says the pilot dumped about 350 gallons (1,325 liters) of pink water from the aircraft, which then stalled and crashed.
Gender reveal parties have also led to wildfires:
In addition to the plane crashes and wildfires, in 2019 a woman named Pamela Kreimeyer died instantly after a gender reveal device exploded. The Associated Press reported that the device had been welded to a metal cylinder and packed with gunpowder.
The homemade explosive that killed 56-year-old Pamela Kreimeyer in Knoxville, Iowa, was just the latest example. The device was meant to spray colorful powder into the air, but instead exploded like a pipe bomb.
Kreimeyer, who was standing 45 feet away, died instantly when a piece of debris struck her head.
In sum, a plane crashed during a gender reveal party in Cancun, Mexico. Another plane also crashed in Texas during a similar party in 2019. Other such celebrations have led to wildfires and dangerous explosions.