Animated video about a plane crash, misrepresented as a Brazilian air disaster

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<span>A screenshot of the fake message, taken on September 27, 2024 </span>” data-src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/rM8jeV8jgef7a3iMyf1lgA–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTkyMw–/https://media.zenfs.com/en/afp_factcheck_us_713/2d829b8251434 cec686a220cd650849c”/><span></div>
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A screenshot of the fake message, taken on September 27, 2024

The video shared by a social media user from Cameroon shows a Thai Airlines plane circulating above an urban landscape as flames and smoke billow from its engines before landing on a beach.

The messages circulated after an airplane crashed in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo on August 9, 2024, killing all 62 people on board (archived here).

Social media users have viewed the post more than 159,000 times, with several praising the pilot’s flying skills.

“Wow, the pilot is so great… good idea to land in the sea to save all the passengers of that plane, thank God (sic),” one user wrote.

But the claim that the video shows a plane crash in Brazil is false.

Video game footage

Several clues indicate that these images come from a computer game, Kilian Fichou’s video game correspondent told AFP.

“It definitely comes out of a video game – especially the modeling of the buildings and the vegetation, (and) the camera movements,” he told AFP Fact Check.

Modeling refers to the way game designers work shape objects in a video game to look three-dimensional (archived here).

The “bird’s eye view” – or the perspective of a bird in flight – is a classic camera angle in video games, he added.

Thanks to several visual clues, AFP Fact Check was able to confirm which video game the images came from.

About 10 seconds into the Facebook footage, a building appears with a sign that says “Kayton” on it.

<span>A screenshot of the fake video taken on September 27, 2024 </span>” data-src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/xLAIoBAtVCjKBpGzJmIBuw–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTkwNw–/https://media.zenfs.com/en/afp_factcheck_us_713/0ad1acad0008b0ff87 b08e4a576898e3″/><span></div>
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A screenshot of the fake video taken on September 27, 2024

Using a keyword search for ‘Kayton video game’, AFP Fact Check was found the location is a fictional bank in Grand Theft Auto (archived here).

<span>A screenshot comparison of the fake video (left) and GameRant </span>” data-src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/ON.QSoFfwRaXQOQ_ZqApRw–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTQwMw–/https://media.zenfs.com/en/afp_factcheck_us_713/6191b1298753 f0f753e0ad9cfb3a1b60″ /><span></div>
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A screenshot comparison of the fake video (left) and GameRant

In addition, the game includes a plane crash storylineof which there are dozens of videos online (archived here).

AFP debunked one similar claim divided into Tagalog, English, Spanish, And Italian.

Plane crash in Brazil

Using a keyword search for ‘Brazil plane crash’, AFP Fact Check was found a video from news reports about the tragic incident on August 9 (archived here).

Videos showed the ATR 72-500 plane in a downward spin before it crashed into a residential area in the city of Vinhedo, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Brazil’s financial capital Sao Paulo.

The plane, operated by airline Voepass, fell almost vertically, landed on its belly and exploded in flames, impacting with such force that it almost became “flattened,” Sao Paulo fire Lt. Olivia Perroni Cazo said.

The aircraft in the circulating video did not match the twin propeller ATR 72-500 model managed by Voepass which crashed (archived here).

<span>A screenshot of the fake video (left) and a photo of the ATR72-500 aircraft </span>” data-src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/xRdZfhFQtTcWSCxYzFgvSg–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTQ3OA–/https://media.zenfs.com/en/afp_factcheck_us_713/3a09322ad6f 255bfc7da46220f788c89″/><span></div>
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A screenshot of the fake video (left) and a photo of the ATR72-500 aircraft

AFP Fact Check has published tips on spotting computer-generated videos of plane crashes, which you can read about here.

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