Images of deadly Bangladesh fighter jet crash are AI-generated
- Published on July 24, 2025 at 08:46
- 5 min read
- By Rasheek MUJIB, AFP Bangladesh
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"My heart is pounding....... A training plane has crashed horribly in the grounds of Milestone College in Dhaka's Uttara," reads part of the Bengali-language caption of two Facebook images shared on July 21, 2025.
The images show what appear to be private jets burning in the middle of a sports field, with emergency personnel stationed nearby and a crowd watching on.
It was shared after a Bangladeshi fighter jet slammed into the private Milestone School and College in Dhaka just as pupils had been let out of class (archived link).
At least 31 people were killed, mostly children; more than 170 people were injured, with 69 of them still undergoing treatment at various hospitals.
A similar image, showing a fighter jet next to a smouldering building, was shared on Facebook on the same day, with a Bengali-language caption that read: "Some young people are starting to make up stories about failed a driver, why? Is it possible that 100+ students died according to the students' statements?"
A video purportedly showing the fighter jet crashing into the school was viewed more than 300,000 times after it was posted on Facebook on July 21.
"How the accident happened," reads its Bengali-language caption.
The images were shared in similar Bengali-language Facebook posts, as well as in Thai, Malay and Burmese posts.
And the video was also shared elsewhere on Facebook here.
But they do not show the disaster.
AI-generated visuals
The circulating visuals do not match photos and video from the crash taken by AFP in the immediate aftermath on July 21 (archived link).
The AFP photos and video show the wreckage of the fighter jet inside the school building as well as a charred fuselage and engine near the structure.
An AFP photographer who was at the site also confirmed the falsely shared images do not show the area where the crash occurred (archived link).
An analysis of the first two falsely shared images show they depict two different types of passenger aircraft -- not fighter jets -- burning on a field well away from any buildings.
The first responders in the false images also appear to be wearing different equipment to what is worn by firemen in Bangladesh (archived link).
The images also contain visual inconsistencies that are indicative of generative AI technology, such as misshapen individuals with missing arms and feet.
The third falsely shared image of a fighter jet in a building's courtyard also contains inconsistencies -- the jet appears largely undamaged and there appears to be the remains of a second aircraft next to the rubble.
A reverse image search on Google led to other posts that used the picture, but the website's "About this image" feature revealed a label indicating it was made using Google's AI tools.
The ability to detect AI-generated images is based on Google's SynthID technology, which was launched by its DeepMind AI lab in 2023 (archived here and here).
Similarly, the video purportedly showing the fighter jet crashing into the Dhaka school bears a watermark for "Veo" in its bottom-right corner.
Veo is Google's AI-powered video creation tool, which allows users to generate realistic-looking videos that are eight seconds long -- the same length as the falsely shared clip (archived link).
Moreover, the video misspells the name of the school -- using "Milesttone" rather than "Milestone".
AFP has previously debunked other AI-generated content misrepresented as showing plane accidents.
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