Plane Crash

Have you seen viral videos showing elaborate movie sets of small-scale cities and landscapes where the crew creates special effects -- explosions and natural disasters -- in front of a blue or green screen? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They do not show real…

Does a screenshot show a real Mehdi Hasan social media post with a September 11 photo and the caption, "Make American planes crash again."? No, that's not true: The screenshot is altered. The original Feb. 16, 2025, and later deleted post by Hasan did not have a 9/11 image showing a plane about to crash into the World Trade Center.…

Does a real video show the moment a passenger plane made an emergency landing on a highway in Georgia? No, that's not true: This video is AI-generated. The Hive Moderation AI-generated content detection tool found the video was 96.1% likely to be AI-generated. Searches of Google News did not show a recent incident involving a large passenger plane crash landing…

Did viral posts share a real Trump Truth Social screenshot about a C-130 crash producing eight Air Force vacancies? No, that's not true: Trump did not post this message, according to Lead Stories' searches of his Truth Social account. No credible media organization reported Trump making such a statement. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X where…

Does a viral image actually show a U.S. Army helicopter that crashed in Iran on April 3, 2026? No, that's not true: The picture was online more than a year earlier. It was published in Honduras in March 2025. The claim appeared in a post (archived here and here) published by the @TheLaikYobaz account on X on April 3, 2026.…

Were the pilots of the Air Canada plane that crashed into a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport both females? No, that's not true: The pilot and co-pilot killed in the ground collision have been identified as Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther. The FAA administrator described the two as "young men at the start of their careers" during a March 23,…

Did the White House post an alert that all flights were grounded, airspace was restricted and the National Guard had been activated on Feb. 6, 2026? No, that's not true: Nothing on the White House website, the FAA alert history or in real news reporting shows any such actions were taken. The hoax has circulated through traffic farming accounts and…

Did a California aquarium collapse, killing 50 people, as was claimed in a viral Instagram reel? No, that's not true: A disaster of that magnitude and novelty would have been a worldwide news story and there is no record of such an event in news publications in or out of California. The Instagram account that posted the video consists of…

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 show a July 13, 2025, plane crash at London Southend Airport? No, that's not true: The footage predates it. It captures an airshow in South Africa that resulted in one plane hitting the ground and killing the pilot. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on July 13, 2025. It opened: The…