Did someone in Alaska capture video in early January 2025 showing military jets flying in formation alongside saucer-shaped UFOs? No, that's not true: The UFO video was originally posted on YouTube in October 2023 and the account it came from features computer-generated imagery sourced from video games and flight simulators. Although this video did not carry a specific disclaimer when posted on YouTube, similar videos from this creator do have disclaimers.
The UFO video resurfaced in a reel (archived here) on Facebook on January 4, 2025. The post was captioned:
Breaking: Multiple UFOs spotted in the skies over Alaska today, accompanied by military aircraft! Witnesses report strange lights and unusual flight patterns as speculation grows. Could this be evidence of extraterrestrial activity, or is there a logical explanation? Watch now to see the unbelievable footage and join the discussion about what's really happening in Alaska's airspace. Don't miss out on the latest updates on UFO sightings and military involvement!
#UFO #Alaska #UFOsighting #MilitaryAircraft #Extraterrestrial #Aliens #UAP #UFOnews #MysteriousEvents #BreakingNews
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Jan 7 17:08:19 2025 UTC)
This video does not show something that happened "today" (according to the post, January 4, 2025). A search of TikTok for the keywords "Alaska UFO" (archived here) returned several results, one dating back to October 3, 2023 (archived here). These show the same video as in the Facebook reel with a watermark of @chaos_factory. In the Facebook reel, the @chaos_factory watermark has been obscured by a text box that reads:
UFOs seen over Alaska today being followed by military aircraft
There is not currently a @chaos-factory TikTok account. The October 3, 2023, TikTok post (pictured below) was posted by @star_travel3r, who identifies their content as "Digital videos." In close succession, this TikTok account has published many of the same videos that are posted on the @chaos_factory account on YouTube. Lead Stories reached out to @star_travel3r to ask if the accounts were run by the same video creator and will update this article if we receive a reply.
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Jan 07 20:01:24 2025 UTC)
On YouTube, @chaos_factory has posted seven videos and 14 vertical format shorts. All seven videos contain clues in the hashtags and captions indicating that the footage originated from some computer-generated imagery. For example a video of a Russian fighter jet crashing has hashtags referring to a Digital Combat Simulator (archived here), #relaxitdcs, #dcsworld and #flightsim. In a video from September 2, 2023 (archived here) titled, "BREAKING: UFO's seen over South Florida today being followed by military attack helicopters." there is a disclaimer under the caption (pictured below) that reads:
This video was created using Flight Simulator
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Tue Jan 07 20:07:24 2025 UTC)
The vertical format shorts do not consistently contain disclaimers. Some of the shorts feature cars and trucks. One posted on August 12, 2023, is titled, "Could you survive these ramp jump crashes?" and has a hashtag "#relaxitsbeamng." BeamNG is physics simulation-based gaming software. One short from October 7, 2023 (archived here), is titled, "BREAKING: Multiple UFO's being seen near Tel Aviv being intercepted by Israeli F-15's" features hashtags like #relaxitdcs and #simulation.
On October 4, 2023, the UFO video in question (archived here) had been posted with the title, "BREAKING: Multiple UFO's seen over Alaska today being followed by military aircraft. #sgorta #ufo" -- Lead Stories was unable to determine the relevance of the hashtag #sgorta (archived here) in association with this short, but this video short has no clear disclaimer.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims associated with UFOs can be found here.
