Did a woman arrive from Tokyo, Japan, at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City with a passport of a nonexistent country named "Torenza", as viral videos and text posts claim? No, that's not true: The viral videos reused old footage. It came from a TV show about airline workers that aired on cable in the U.S. in the mid-2000s. The viral videos incorporated AI generated narration and were likely produced by AI editing software.
The claim appeared in a reel (archived here) on Facebook, where it was published on October 8, 2025. The caption began: "Unbelievable....Breaking News..." It continued:
Authorities at JFK International Airport were left baffled when a woman arriving from Tokyo presented a passport issued by a nation called Torenza, a country that, according to all known records, maps, and databases, simply does not exist #shockingtwist #worldnews #today #americaupdate #foryoupage
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of reel at facebook.com/reel/841825191601848)
The b-roll of a woman with a covered head in a long blue or purple gown who walked past empty seats in the airport's waiting area was not a freshly generated AI video. That scene was lifted from "Airline", a TV show that aired on A&E in the U.S. in the mid-2000s. The documentary series showed "the daily difficulties of a crew of airline workers trying to keep a large airport in perfect working order," reads the entry about the show on IMDb (archived here).
Starting at the 22:01 mark in a YouTube video published by A&E, we can see the same scene. It depicts an airline worker helping an older passenger from Baltimore who doesn't speak English. The episode makes no mention of "Torenza". Contrary to the claim, the scene was recorded in Los Angeles, not New York City's JFK airport.
The composite images below demonstrate that the frames from the viral video (on the left) match the A&E show's footage (on the right):
(Image sources: Lead Stories screenshot of reel at facebook.com/reel/841825191601848; Lead Stories screenshot of video at https://www.youtube.com/@AETV; composite image by Lead Stories)
(Image sources: Lead Stories screenshot of reel at facebook.com/reel/841825191601848; Lead Stories screenshot of video at https://www.youtube.com/@AETV; composite image by Lead Stories)
(Image sources: Lead Stories screenshot of reel at facebook.com/reel/841825191601848; Lead Stories screenshot of video at https://www.youtube.com/@AETV; composite image by Lead Stories)
(Image sources: Lead Stories screenshot of reel at facebook.com/reel/841825191601848; Lead Stories screenshot of video at https://www.youtube.com/@AETV; composite image by Lead Stories)
Yet the creators of viral clips relied on generative AI to produce them.
The video reviewed in this fact check had voice-over that said:
A woman has landed at JFK airport with a passport from a country that has never existed in our lifetime. Authorities at JFK International Airport are in shock.
Tonight, a woman arrived from Tokyo carrying a passport from a nation called Terenza, a place that does not exist on any map of our world. The passport was flawless, biometric chip, perfect holograms, dozens of stamps from countries that also do not exist. Her documents were perfect, better than perfect.
But the country, Terenza, doesn't exist anywhere. Witnesses say she looked completely ordinary, like any tourist. But when agents told her, Terenza isn't real, she froze, then whispered, 'Then this isn't my world'. She asked me, 'Is this America?' I said, 'Yes, of course'. Then she whispered, 'America?' - like she had landed in the wrong place.
Authorities placed her in a secure room under surveillance. She sat calmly for hours, then she vanished. Cameras show her fading away like static on a broken television screen. So who was she? A lost traveler from another dimension?
This text and the audio were identical or nearly identical to other videos making the same claim. Two AI detectors -- InVid and Resemble -- said that the audio was produced by voice cloning technology:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of InVid)
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Resemble.ai)
Different clips placed the event in different locations. Even the video reviewed in this fact check used two different names for it: Torenza in the caption and Terenza in the audio narration.
In another video (archived here), the voice-over would describe the woman's country of origin as "Teresa":
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at tiktok.com/@abomdhon2)
That video mentioned CapCut, an AI editing software that can also generate audio and video, among other things:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of CapCut.com)
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of CapCut.com)
One more clip (archived here) showed an image of a "passport" issued by "Torkezza", an additional variation of the nonexistent country's name. That picture showed a telling sign of AI: the lines in gibberish:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at tiktok.com/@8659893a/video/7559103478585396494)
In addition to viral videos, the claim had text-only versions, too. One of them (archived here) appeared on a website specializing in the publication of fiction. It placed the events at "Torrento Airport," which does not exist in real life. The second part of the same story (archived here) changed the main character to a man who arrived from "Torenza" but landed at Heathrow in London, UK.
No credible sources reported any incidents remotely similar to what was described in the claim. A search across Google News (archived here) did not show reports about the story -- it showed fact checks.
Some social media users posted screenshots of Google Maps in the comment section (archived here), suggesting that "Torenza" may be a real place in Japan. A search on Google Maps (archived here) showed on location under this name, but it was not a country:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Google Maps)
The street view mode, however, immediately revealed that the name of the company at the location was different, and that name was consistent with how the business described itself on its website (archived here):
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Google Maps)
Yet, some in the comment section on Google Maps still demanded that "Torenza" issue passports for them:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of Google Maps)
