Years-old US clip falsely shared as Myanmar jet crash footage
- Published on August 9, 2026 at 06:07
- 2 min read
- By AFP Thailand
After reports of a military plane crash near Myanmar's commercial hub in August 2026, social media users falsely shared old footage, claiming it was filmed from the aircraft's cockpit. AFP found the clip was originally published in 2021 on a US military archive and geolocated the scene to Lake Worth, a city in Texas.
"Black box record of Tatmadaw fighter jet crash," reads the superimposed text of a Burmese-language TikTok video shared on August 4, 2026.
"Tatmadaw" is an official term in Burmese referring to the Myanmar Armed Forces (archived link).
The 15-second clip shows a cockpit view of an aircraft approaching a runway. A bird comes into view, then the pilot appears to lose control of the jet, and it crashes into a residential area.
The same video circulated alongside similar claims on Facebook and TikTok following reports of a Myanmar military jet crash in Hmawbi Township, Yangon Region, on August 3 (archived link).
Myanmar's Information Ministry said a bird strike during routine training caused an engine failure, but no casualties were reported (archived link).
The country has been consumed by civil war since the military ousted a democratic government in 2021, with the junta intensifying air strikes each year, resulting in civilian casualties (archived here and here).
In June last year, anti-coup guerrillas claimed they downed a jet in central Sagaing region killing four people, while Myanmar's junta said it crashed due to "sudden engine failure."
User comments beneath the circulating post indicated that people believed the footage was genuine.
"The bird disrupted because it knew that they would kill civilians," reads a user's comment, while another person wrote: "This is real. MRTV announced it."
AFP has debunked other false claims that circulated after reports of military aircraft crashes.
But the circulating footage is unrelated to Myanmar. It was first published in 2021 and was in fact filmed in the United States.
Keyword and reverse image searches using keyframes of the circulating video found a higher quality version of the same footage uploaded on the archives of the US military's Digital Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) on September 19, 2021 (archived here and here).
The clip was captioned: "The head-up display (HUD) video from a T-45C Goshawk attached to Training Squadron (VT) 22 in Kingsville, Texas, shows the cockpit view as the aircraft ingested a large bird during its descent toward a runway at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth."
On the same day, the US Navy released a statement saying a T-45C Goshawk jet training aircraft had crashed into a residential area, damaging at least three homes in Lake Worth, Texas (archived link). No casualties were reported.
The same footage has been published in reports about the same aircraft incident by US media including NBC News and broadcaster KDFW (archived here and here).
Visuals from the DVIDS video also match Google Earth's satellite imagery in October 2021 of Fort Worth, Texas (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked misinformation related to Myanmar unrest here.
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