Turning a Crash Into a Kill: AI Content Continues to Fuel War Misinformation

As the war enters its fourth month, misinformation continues to spread across social media. A viral video viewed millions of times claims to show Iran shooting down a U.S military aircraft. We found no evidence that such an incident occurred. Analysis suggests the footage is AI-generated and was shared alongside a misleading narrative built around a separate real-world event. 

Nearly four months have passed since U.S and Israeli forces launched the war on Iran on February 28. The latest escalation came when Iran shot down a U.S Army Apache helicopter patrolling the Strait of Hormuz. A U.S. Army Apache helicopter assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division went down off the coast of Oman while patrolling the strait, on June 9. Trump pledged a retaliatory strike, and U.S Central Command followed through — with Tehran hitting back by targeting military bases in Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait.

Manufactured, old, and unrelated visuals are still trending to feed into the war frenzy. A video has gone viral, including in India, claiming that Iran U.Sed a weapon worth one hundred and fifty dollars to shoot down a billion-dollar American military aircraft. We examine the truth behind the viral video.

What is the viral claim?

On June 10, an X U.Ser named Mr. Hass posted a video showing several uniformed officers aboard a ship aiming at an aircraft and firing what appeared to be a weapon. The video was captioned: “Iran U.Sed a weapon worth one hundred and fifty dollars to shoot down a billion-dollar American military aircraft. For the first time, America had met its true adversary.”

As of June 11, the video had garnered around 5 million views, 7,700 likes, and 1,500 reposts.

One comment, which had received more than 86,000 views, read: “That is pretty fucking impressive. And it once again underpins the arrogance and sheer stupidity of the Trump regime”.

Many U.Sers in the comments claimed that the video was AI-generated. Some pointed out that the badge on the officers’ uniforms appeared to be an American insignia , not an Iranian one. Others ridiculed the claim, particularly the reference to a “billion-dollar” aircraft, arguing that the footage itself looked AI-generated.

Several other U.Sers, including a spoof account named Iran Army, also shared the video. The post had garnered more than 6 lakh views as of June 11, but it has since been taken down.

A review of the account’s posts shows that it regularly shares manufactured, fake, and unrelated visuals linked to the ongoing war. 

There is no “billion-dollar” aircraft

We ran a keyword search to determine whether any credible news reports had documented the downing of an American military aircraft around the dates mentioned in the viral posts. We found no such reports.

However, on June 9, a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter crashed near the Strait of Hormuz. According to multiple news reports, both crew members aboard the aircraft were safely rescued, and the caU.Se of the incident remained under investigation. There were no confirmed reports that the helicopter had been shot down.

It appears that this real-world incident was subsequently distorted and repurposed to support the claim made in the viral posts, which falsely suggested that Iran had shot down a high-value American military aircraft.

A reverse image search U.Sing keyframes extracted from the video did not yield any relevant real-world matches.

As many U.Sers in the comments suggested that the footage might be AI-generated, we further examined the video U.Sing Hive Moderation’s AI detection tool. The analysis returned a score of 99.4%, indicating that the content is highly likely to be AI-generated or contain deepfake elements.

The viral video is AI-generated and does not show a real incident. A U.S Army Apache helicopter did go down near the Strait of Hormuz on June 9, but it is unrelated to the visuals in the viral video. No credible news reports support the claim, and AI detection tools flagged the footage at 99.4% likelihood of being AI-generated.

The video is also part of a wider flood of misinformation since the war began, with manipulated and unrelated visuals being shared as real footage.