Does a video show a real incident in which an airport ground crew tried to retrieve a piece of metal being sucked into a jet engine? No, that's not true: This video is fake. Along with the unrealistically risky behavior of the ground crew, there are several glitches which point to the video having been AI-generated. The piece of metal which falls from a cargo lift changes shape as it falls. A traffic cone on the tarmac vanishes. One of the ground crew members seems to pass through the arm of another when they collide at the edge of the jet's fan cowl.
One copy of the video was posted (archived here) on X by @Alain_map on Feb. 15, 2026. It opened:
If a part of the plane goes into the engine even before takeoff, what will happen?
Should such a flight be immediately stopped? 😱
This is a screenshot from the video:
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot from x.com/Alain_map/status/2023260582737285567.)
This video is full of anomalies typical of AI-generated content. One example is an orange traffic cone directly under the engine (visible in the screenshot above). After being obscured from view momentarily, at the 8-second mark that orange cone is gone.
The metal debris does not maintain a consistent shape throughout the video (pictured in the composite image below). At the start, the metal is seen falling from the cargo lift. The panel is an irregular shape, and the sky can be seen through several openings. As the panel tumbles it appears to have a grid of structural ribs on one side and brackets on the other. At one point it is very clearly shown to have five sides but no longer has any openings. After the metal is sucked into the cowl of the jet engine, the shape no longer appears to be five-sided. As the video ends, the visible side of the panel does not match either the brackets or the ribs seen earlier.
(Image Source: Lead Stories composite image with screenshots from x.com/Alain_map/status/2023260582737285567.)
At 6 seconds a crew member is on the ground facing down (pictured below). If the bend of their elbow and knee are used for reference, the upper and lower halves of their body are facing opposite directions.
(Image Source: Lead Stories detail screenshot from x.com/Alain_map/status/2023260582737285567.)
One of the ground crew wearing light blue gloves makes a dramatic but pointless lunge toward the cowl. They are soon joined by another crew member wearing yellow gloves. As the second person throws themself at the edge of the cowl, their body seems to pass through the left arm of the first (GIF below).
(Image Source: Lead Stories GIF with screenshots from x.com/Alain_map/status/2023260582737285567.)
