AI-generated video misrepresented as damage from Iranian strike at Dubai airport

"Reports from foreign media say Dubai airport has been attacked," reads a Thai-language Facebook post published on March 3, 2026.

Overlaid text on the video says: "The airport has reportedly been closed until further notice."

The clip -- viewed more than 49,000 times -- appears to show an airport building and an aircraft on fire as a thick black plume of smoke billows into the sky.

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Screenshot of the false post taken on March 25 with a red X and an AI graphic added by AFP

The same video has spread in similar posts in English, Spanish, Hindi, French, and Mongolian, with many blaming Iran for the strike, as the Islamic republic retaliated for a joint US-Israeli attack on February 28 by launching missiles and drones towards Israel and Gulf nations that host US interests (archived here and here).

Dubai airport experienced major disruptions from the war. Authorities temporarily suspended flights at one of the world's busiest air hubs on March 7 after an unidentified object was intercepted nearby and later on March 16 following a "drone-related incident" (archived here and here).

But the circulating footage does not show the impact of the strikes, and media forensic experts said the clip bears signs of AI.

Hany Farid, a co-founder of GetReal Security and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, told AFP on March 13 that one of the anomalies in the video is "the garbled text on the side of the plane" (archived link).

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Screenshot of the AI video's analysis taken by Hany Farid on March 13 with elements highlighted in red and an AI symbol added by AFP

Siwei Lyu, director of Media Forensic Lab at the University at Buffalo, also analysed the clip and concluded with "high confidence" that it was made with AI (archived link).

"The smoke rises in cloud-like clusters with no turbulent flow, casts no shadows, and does not interact with the fuselage," he said on March 15.

A further analysis by AFP has identified other visual inconsistencies commonly found in AI-generated content, including a fire truck spraying water at the terminal building's ceiling rather than the flame and firefighters abruptly disappearing.

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Screenshots of the AI video with AI symbols added and visual inconsistencies highlighted by AFP

An AFP photograph also shows the aircraft's tail in the AI clip does not match the livery used by Emirates, the UAE's flag carrier (archived link).

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Screenshot comparison between the AI clip (L) and an AFP photo of Emirates aircraft, with the difference highlighted by AFP

The airline's public relations department dismissed the claim as "100 percent false" in a statement sent to AFP on March 16.

Dubai airport said it remained operational on March 3 -- when the false posts began circulating -- noting that "more than 500 flights" departed between March 2 and 5, according to a post on its X account (archived link).

AFP has debunked other misinformation related to the Middle East war.