Fake news and deepfakes about flydubai flight spreading online

In the hours since the mid-air incident aboard flydubai flight FZ1073, false information and fake video have been circulating widely on social media. 

In the modern news environment, major events can often be targets for people wanting to spread false narratives or "go viral" with dramatic — and bogus — details.

Add in the tense geopolitics of the regions involved in this particular incident and you have all the ingredients required for a misinformation perfect storm.

ABC NEWS Verify has examined and attempted to debunk some of the fake news that's spreading online.

False flag incident was 'staged' by Israel

Rumours started spreading quickly and widely in the wake of this incident that it was an Israeli-planned event, with one tweet by popular United States conspiracy theorist Jackson Hinkle being viewed on X more than 1.5 million times.

Multiple other posts describing the midair incident as a "false flag" operation — or an act disguising the true person or party responsible — have also been shared widely.

Given that the investigation into the incident is only hours old and the motivation and history of the alleged perpetrator is still unknown, this narrative appears to be relying on anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic tropes rather than any established facts. 

The source of this post, Jackson Hickle, has a reported history of spreading falsehoods, an act that may be financially incentivised as he's previously admitted to receiving payments from X.com in exchange for highly engaging posts.

BBC deepfake

This deepfake video purporting to be a real BBC News report was posted onto X just a couple of hours after the incident. 

It appears to have been created using real footage of BBC presenter Sally Bundock, but AI-manipulated with a fake Australian voice and script. 

The deepfake combines footage of a plane flying over a city that appears to be completely unrelated to this flydubai incident, as well as real verified video from inside the flight.

It's pushing a narrative that Indian officials were somehow involved in the incident alongside Mossad — something there is simply no established evidence for.

The post has been viewed more than 300,000 times but does now have an added content note on X that describes it as "AI slop".

What's notable is how quickly it was produced, and how realistic elements of it are, including the reproduction of BBC News visual signposts and the use of a real presenter's face and body.

Anti-Pakistan and anti-Indian sentiment

Multiple posts about the "true" nationality or citizenship of the pilot responsible have been spread on social media, well before any established information about his identity or alleged motivation had been formally released by authorities.

While the "hero" pilot has been publicly identified by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Indian pilot captain Smit Machchhar, no official information about the alleged perpetrator had been made publicly available when these posts went out, and they appear to rely entirely on anti-Pakistani sentiment.

Reuters has since reported that an unnamed Israeli official had identified the attacker as an Omani national.

Ongoing tensions between Pakistan and India have become a motivation for some accounts seeking to spread misinformation aimed at blaming major events on Pakistani or Indian nationals — something that was also seen after the Bondi massacre.

ABC NEWS Verify recommends always examining the sources of material being spread online, asking yourself questions about their motivation and legitimacy and always looking for corroboration from trusted news providers.