Fact Check: Dubai airport under attack, distressed passenger cries for safety? No, AI visuals go viral
The Dubai airport was reportedly struck by Iran on March 1. A video is going viral with the claim that it shows a distressed woman at the airport.
By - K Sherly Sharon
Claim:The video shows a distressed woman asking for help during an attack at the Dubai Airport.
Fact:False. The video is AI-generated.
Hyderabad: On February 28, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was reportedly killed in joint US-Israel airstrikes on the country. Tehran called the attacks unprovoked and illegal, and responded by launching missiles at Israel and several Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Amid these military escalations, the Dubai airport was also reportedly struck on March 1 by Iran. Dubai Media Office wrote on X, “Dubai Airports confirms that a concourse at Dubai International (DXB) sustained minor damage in an incident, which was quickly contained.”
In this context, a video has gone viral claiming to show the situation at the Dubai Airport. The video shows a distressed woman clutching onto her luggage. At one point in the video, we can see that there was smoke coming out of the ground close to her within the airport. We can also hear lights flashing and hear sirens.
Sharing the video to X, a user wrote, “What is she saying and why is she clutching the suitcase? (Scenes at Dubai Airport)” (Archive) (Translated from Arabic)
A post making a similar claim can be found here. (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video is AI-generated
Reverse image searches of the viral video did not yield any news reports about the attack on the Dubai Airport that resemble the scene in the viral video.
Analysis of the video
We analysed the video closely and found a few discrepancies. In the beginning, the luggage in her hands has one zipper; however, by the end of the video, the zipper seems to be warped, splitting into two.
The gold colour shoe she wore in the video completely changed styles later in the video, and the same can be observed with her jewellery, the rings on her hands.
These are some usual indications of a video being generated or modified using Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Using an AI detection tool, Sight Engine, we found that the video is 96 per cent likely to be AI-generated. The results also reflected that there was a 7 per cent chance of the presence of a deepfake at the latter end of the video.
Hive Moderation, another AI-detection tool, also confirmed that the video is 99.9 per cent likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content.
Therefore, it is clear that the viral video was generated using AI. NewsMeter concludes that the viral claim is false.
