The photo depicts a wind turbine engulfed in dense, black smoke with flames, with the outlines of two tiny human figures seen standing facing each other at the top of the structure, on the small area the fire had not yet reached. The caption often added to the image, "two technicians embracing each other on top of a burning wind turbine," makes the impact utterly staggering.

Upon seeing the picture, one might later think that such a scene despite all its horror appears almost cinematic and surely must be a sensationalized fake. Nowadays, due to the industrial-scale production of deepfakes and images generated by artificial intelligence, we might just shrug off such images. However, nearly twenty years ago, there was already an instance of a news agency photographer who doctored his own war photograph to make the aftermath of a bombing seem more dramatic.

We looked into the origin of the wind turbine photo, and as a preface, we can reveal that, according to reports from the time, the tragic story is no fiction.

IT STARTED AS A ROUTINE INSPECTION

The sun had not yet risen when, on October 29, 2013, Arjan Kortus and Daan Kous left the city of Barneveld in the Netherlands. The two young employees of Bettink Service en Onderhoud were headed for a scheduled maintenance trip to the wind park located two hours away by car in Ooltgensplaat, planning to perform the semi-annual check-up on the wind turbines, which included lubrication, oil filling, examination of condensators, and motor testing a fastening here, a filter replacement there, checking for leaks, wear and tear, and loose cables.

For the engineers of the company, the wind park near Ooltgensplaat was familiar territory, with Bettink staff visiting to maintain the 12 Vestas V66 wind turbines and carry out necessary repairs for at least five years. As one technician later explained, "a Vestas is a turbine where things can break very quickly."

Arjan, 21, and Daan, 19, arrived at the site around 8 a.m. and parked their car. Their colleagues took on the first wind turbine, while the two young workers began on the second.

HORROR AT 67 METERS UP

Everything was proceeding as planned until around three in the afternoon when the walkie-talkie in turbine number 1 started crackling. The technicians heard that something had happened in number 2. The signal was weak inside, so they stepped out and then saw the other wind turbine ablaze beside them. The structure burned with pitch-black smoke visible for kilometers.

Fleeing the flames, Arjan and Daan climbed to the top from inside the turbine but were trapped at a height of 67 meters.

Firefighters arriving at the scene were helpless; their equipment simply couldn't reach the fire, situated as high as the top of a twenty-story building. A rescue helicopter was also called but couldn't assist. Meanwhile, burning debris was falling from above, and the fire, fueled by the oil inside the structure, raged for hours. The massive heat generated by the flames made it impossible for the rescue teams to search the inside of the wind turbine for a long time.

David Mol, the director of the wind park, was among the last to see the two technicians alive, witnessing them standing at the top of the burning wind turbine. "They were holding each other," he told Algemeen Dagblad newspaper after the tragedy.

The young men could not escape death. One of them fell or jumped from the top of the burning turbine. A witness claimed they saw "a burning person" falling. The other man's charred remains were found much later in the evening up top; perhaps he had tried the impossible, attempting to pass through the flames to save his life.

EVERYTHING HAPPENED TOO FAST

Naturally, speculation abounds online about why the two victims couldn't escape. Wind turbine nacelles are typically equipped with descent ropes for emergencies. According to a Bettink spokesperson, despite their youth, the technicians had done many such jobs, were experienced, and well-trained, having undergone descent training just the month before. Thus, what exactly happened remains a mystery, but it is presumed the fire spread too fast.

"We still don't know exactly what could have happened," said Alinda Kortus, Arjan Kortus's mother, in an interview more than three and a half years after the tragedy in 2017. "A fire broke out, and likely in panic, the boys climbed up, with nowhere to go."

Alinda and her husband only learned about the accident on the wind turbine from the news around six in the evening. Initially comforting themselves with the hope that it wasn't their son who had been injured, they called Arjan's workplace half an hour later, only to discover that it was indeed he and his 19-year-old colleague who had been working on the ignited turbine. Hours of agony followed until they found out late at night that their son did not survive.

A BOATER TOOK THE PHOTO

Arjan's parents also have two other sons, who were 14 and 18 at the time, and they needed support in their grief. Although they had not known the other technician, Daan's parents before, conversations after the tragedy brought them closer, and they maintain a good relationship today.

It also emerged that a person on a boat passing by the burning wind turbine took photos of the two boys, and the parents later received these images.

“The photo shows Arjan and Daan embracing each other. Arjan then likely went back through the fire, and Daan fell. I don’t really want to imagine what they went through,” said the mother.

With this, she confirmed the authenticity of the photo and the harrowing scene captured. She also explained why the iconic photo was taken from the opposite side of the wind turbine than most videos: because the TV crews were filming from the land, while the boater took the photo from the water.

The company was not held responsible after nearly five years of investigation into the tragedy. It was discovered that the fire broke out due to a short circuit in the cabin where the 19 and 21-year-old men were. They had turned off the wind turbine in the section they were working, and the short circuit was presumably caused by falling tools. After the fire erupted, they likely tried to extinguish it before realizing they could not reach the narrow escape route.

According to the prosecutor, there was no fault or negligence for which the company could be criminally liable. The company and its employees followed the protocol. However, the prosecution concluded that stricter regulations might be needed for the construction and maintenance of such wind turbines. Some experts noted at the time that it's an evolving industry with room for improvement in safety standards.

Arjan's mother wishes to set aside the sadness and pain that will never leave her life from losing her son. Yet, she tries to remain positive and does not regret the existence of the dramatic photograph.

"I'm glad we have those pictures of Arjan and Daan on the wind turbine. I didn't look at them immediately because it's horrendous to confront such images for the first time. It's terrible to think about what went through their heads. But this is the last memory we have of Arjan."