Airplane

Did a boy scout named Eric Langford disappear in the Airondirac forests of New York State in 1989 and did he mysteriously return in 2001? No, that's not true: The fictional tale about a kidnapping appeared on a YouTube channel that published fake stories about mysterious disappearances in the past. Several details in the story don't match up with reality…

Does a viral video show a real moment when a man is tricked into opening an airplane bathroom door with a woman inside? No, that's not true: The video was made and posted by a skit-maker and content creator. He has posted videos that show pranks or jokes being played on people. The woman in the plane bathroom appears in…

Did a bus passenger refuse to move her bag to make a seat for a pregnant woman, causing a man in a military uniform to stand up to intervene? No, that's not true: This complicated interaction between several people on a bus is not real. The video was produced by an account specializing in skits which has the disclaimer, "I…

Does a video of a woman in a green shirt bashing a tray table against the airplane seat of the man in front of her show a real incident? No, that's not true: The video clip of the man getting annoyed and eventually moving to the seat behind the woman and doing the same to her to teach her a…

Does a viral image show the site of the July 21, 2025, military training plane crash in Dhaka, Bangladesh? No, that's not true: The social media image contradicted what was shown in footage and photographs published by credible media outlets. Authentic visual materials showed that most of the plane's fuselage was obscured from cameras by the debris. The claim appeared…

Does a viral video really show an American B-2 bomber "surprised at high altitude" by enemy Su-34 and Su-35 jets from Russia? No, that's not true: The video originated on a TikTok channel that publishes video game footage. Despite this several social media posts presented the footage as real. The video appeared in a post on TikTok (archived here) where…

Did a widely-shared video show an argument between a police officer and four undercover FBI agents on an airplane? No, that's not true: The people in the video were simply acting out a scripted scenario. The page that posted the sketch routinely publishes similar scripted scenarios, and is affiliated with Network Media, a company that rents out film sets to…

Did a widely-shared video show a white man at a zoo, arguing with a Black woman over her anti-Donald Trump hat? No, that's not true: The people in the video were simply acting out a scripted scenario. The page that posted the sketch routinely publishes similar scripted scenarios, and is affiliated with Network Media, a company that rents out film…

Did a widely-shared clip show Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian airbases, in retaliation against a series of drone attacks on Russian warplanes in June 2025? No, that's not true: The footage was old, and dated to July 2024 at the latest. It appeared to show Russian missiles striking a children's hospital in Kyiv, not airbases. The claim appeared in a…

Did a video shared widely in April 2025 contain an authentic audio recording of a Spirit Airlines Flight 861 pilot landing at an airport despite orders from an air traffic controller to cede the runway to the U.S. president? No, that's not true: the audio was fake, and the incident was a fabrication. The account that originally posted the video…