Video game footage falsely shared as US military plane crash in Afghanistan

This article is more than one year old.
Published on December 1, 2023 at 10:05
Updated on December 4, 2023 at 02:44
2 min read
By AFP Pakistan

Video game footage of a plane crash viewed thousands of times in social media posts has been shared with a false claim it shows a US military plane plummeting to the ground in Afghanistan. The clip in fact was made using a battlefield game called Digital Combat Simulator, according to the YouTube account that posted it. A tech expert said the video contained telltale signs of computer-generated imagery.

"A U.S. C-130 Hercules that was given to the Taliban in 2021 crashed in Afghanistan," reads an October 31 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The post, which has more than 4,000 views, shows a plane emitting black smoke as it circles above a field.

A man off-camera is heard shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) as the aircraft crashes to the ground.

Screenshot taken on November 16, 2023 of the misleading post on X.

The video surfaced in similar posts on X here and here.

While some social media users pointed out that the clip showed video game footage, many appeared to believe it was real.

"Tragic. Rip," one X user commented.

"U.S. taxpayer hardest hit," another wrote.

Digital Combat Simulator

AFP did not find news reports about a US military plane crashing in Afghanistan in 2023.

Keyword searches on Google for 'C-130 plane crash Afghanistan' found the clip posted on a YouTube channel called 'iceman_fox1'.

The channel, which has more than 79,000 subscribers, regularly posts computer-generated imagery of military planes.

The description of the video, posted on July 7, says it was "filmed with Digital Combat Simulator" (archived link).

Digital Combat Simulator is a popular battlefield video game which simulates military aircraft, tanks, ground vehicles and ships.

The video game's developer Eagle Dynamics did not respond to AFP's request for comment.

Below are screenshot comparisons of the video shared in false posts (left) and iceman_fox1's video (right):

Screenshot comparisons of the video shared in false posts (left) and iceman_fox1's video (right)

Lance Ulanoff, US editor-in-chief of technology news site TechRadar, said the smoke emitted from the plane was a giveaway that the video was not real.

"In the case of this video, the one tell-tale feature I identified is the smoke coming from the airplane and the post-explosion smoke plumes which do not look natural. They look grainy and also disappear too quickly," he told AFP.

December 4, 2023 This article was amended to refer to TechRadar as a technology news site rather than a magazine.

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