This video of a 'Garuda Indonesia plane' has been computer-generated

This article is more than one year old.
Published on September 23, 2021 at 05:16
2 min read
By AFP Hong Kong

A video circulating online purports to show smoke billowing from an Indonesian passenger plane after it made an emergency landing at an airport. However, the video -- viewed hundreds of thousands of times on Twitter -- has been shared in a misleading context. It was actually created by a YouTube user with computer-generated imagery.

The video was shared here on Twitter on September 17, 2021. It has been viewed more than 9,000 times.

"Garuda Indonesia," the tweet reads, referring to Indonesia's national airline Garuda Indonesia.

Screenshot taken on September 21, 2021, of the misleading Twitter post

The 36-second video appears to show smoke billowing from a passenger plane after it makes a bumpy landing on an airport runway.

The same video was viewed hundreds of thousands of times on Twitter in Chinese, English and Russian alongside a similar claim.

Some users appeared to believe the video shows a genuine incident.

One user said: "I don't worry about the passengers on the plane, I only worry about the person who filmed the video".

Another user wrote: "The plane is really solid".

However, the video shows computer-generated imagery, not a real incident.

A keyword search on YouTube found the corresponding footage from the five-minute and 44-second mark of this video.

It was published by YouTube user Bopbibun on May 2, 2020.

Below are two screenshot comparisons of the video shared in misleading posts (L) and the YouTube video (R):

Screenshot comparisons between the video shared in misleading posts (L) and the YouTube video (R)

The YouTube video is headlined: "Most Crazy Emergency Landing By Drunk Pilot | X-Plane 11".

The video caption reads in part: "Important: This is only in the flight simulation. This situation is not real! Everything in this video doesn't happen in real life, because this situation is just a challenge for me to try in the flight simulation".

X-Plane 11 is a flight simulator software.

YouTube user Bopbibun noted on his introduction page that he creates simulation videos for fun.

"I make game videos mostly about the airplanes with the flight simulator: X-Plane 11, or FSX or P3D or with GTA 5," wrote Bopbibun. "I am not the pilot either an expert in aviation. I am just a guy who enjoys to play with flight simulators, therefore, my videos are only just for entertainment purposes".

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