Clip of US fighter jet evading an Iranian missile comes from a video game
- Published on March 11, 2026 at 13:31
- 3 min read
- By Zara BOLAÑOS
- Translation and adaptation Oluseyi AWOJULUGBE
After a joint US-Israeli missile strike on Iran killed the country’s supreme leader, Tehran launched retaliatory attacks against Israel and other Gulf countries allied to the United States. A video widely shared on social media claims to show an airborne US military aircraft narrowly evading an Iranian missile. However, the footage comes from a flight simulator video game.
“US PILOT proves that America owns the sky by dodging Iranian missiles This is scary (sic),” reads the caption of a video posted on Facebook by an account with more than one million followers and that describes itself as “Africa's most insightful blog”.
The clip has been shared more than 4,200 times since it was published on March 1, 2026.
The 24-second video shows what appears to be a fighter jet performing evasive manoeuvres as a missile approaches, before firing projectiles to destroy it.
War broke out in the Middle East after joint US-Israeli missile strikes killed Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader since 1989, along with some of his family and other senior Iranian officials (archived here).
Iran responded by targeting US military installations in the region and other Gulf countries with ties to Washington (archived here and here).
However, the video does not show a real US aircraft evading an Iranian missile.
Video game footage
A closer look at the clip reveals some anomalies -- elements in the background, including the rows of trees and houses visible at the beginning of the video, appear artificial.
A reverse image search on keyframes from the video led to the original version on Instagram, where it was posted on February 27, 2026, a day before the opening salvos of the war (archived here).
A gaming content creator called “@cre8comp” posted the video with the caption: “F/A-18 Hornet Dodges the Most Powerful Osa-AKM Missiles in Action!”
The account description clearly states that all clips shared by the page are from a digital flight simulator.
AFP Fact Check also debunked the claim in Spanish.
Read more of our fact-checking work on the Middle East war here.
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