Did a large drone crash in New York City on Christmas Eve 2024 as claimed by a video posted on X? No, that's not true: There are several clues in the video that point to it being AI-generated and the account that posted it published several other similarly themed videos around the same time. True Media, an online AI detection tool, found the clip showed "substantial evidence of manipulation."
The 9-second long video appeared in a post on X (archived here) published on December 25, 2024, with the caption:
Mystery Drone Crash in New York City Sparks Global Concern
A mysterious drone crash occurred in New York City on Christmas Eve, adding to the alarming reports of multiple drone crashes worldwide on the same day. These unexplained incidents have left experts puzzled, fueling speculation about coordinated malfunctions, cyberattacks, or perhaps something more mysterious. What's really happening with these drones?
Share your theories in the comments!
#DroneCrash #NYC #ChristmasEve #MysteryDrones #GlobalPhenomenon #UAP #UnexplainedEvents #Drones #AviationNews #WorldNews
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Dec 27 13:59:48 2024 UTC)
Video shows indications of AI generation
This video was created using AI. The media manipulation detection tools at TrueMedia.org found "substantial evidence of manipulation." The results, shown in the screenshot below, reported AI manipulation of faces, "unusual patterns and discrepancies in facial features," and evidence of audio "that is created by an AI audio generator" (archived here).
(Source: True Media screenshot taken Fri Dec 27 20:05:41 2024 UTC)
Another indication that the video is AI-generated is evidenced in the text on the yellow police tape. On close examination, the letters are malformed and do not make up actual words in the English language -- this is a common flaw present in some AI-generated images (archived here).
The words appearing on the tape at 0:03 and 0:04 seconds in the video, shown below with enlargements, are neither legible nor consistent as they would be if this were genuine printed barricade tape.
(Source: Lead Stories composite image with X screenshots taken on Fri Dec 27 17:31:34 2024 UTC)
Posting account published similar posts involving "drone" and "orb"
The account that posted this video on X shared two additional AI-generated videos of the same theme.
On December 25, 2024, a video captioned, "Another mystery drone crashes in Paris, France" (below left) was posted on X (archived here). Just as with the New York video, there is illegible barricade tape, a crew in hazmat suits, and a crowd of curious bystanders. The so-called "drone," a shiny black geometric object, does not appear to have propellers.
Another post (archived here) shared on X on December 26, 2024, claims to show an orb that crashed in Copenhagen "on Christmas Eve" (below right).
(Source: Lead Stories composite image with X screenshots taken on Fri Dec 27 18:35:33 2024 UTC)
A reverse image search with Google Lens (archived here) found several variations on this theme with the geometric black object.
One (below left) posted on YouTube (archived here) on December 25, 2024, features a remote grassland location and is titled, "Mysterious drones spotted near sensitive locations. Uncover the truth. #ufo #drones #shorts #short".
A second video (below right) posted on TikTok (archived here) on December 26, 2024, shows an unspecified location, perhaps #newjersey, with a question posed in Spanish, "Ovni ou drone?" asking if this shows a UFO or a drone. OVNI is the abbreviation of the Spanish phrase for UFO: "objeto volador no identificado."
In the lower right corner of the second video is a "runway" watermark (inset with a red border). The runway is a company developing AI video-generating tools (archived here) and has a free plan (archived here) where the runway watermark would appear on any video produced.
(Source: Lead Stories composite image with YouTube and TikTok screenshots taken on Fri Dec 27 19:15:33 2024 UTC)
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Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving drones can be found here.
