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| - Fact Check: Not Chinese spy balloons — here's how we deflated these false claims
The video is a simulation made using a video game. It does not show actual US forces shooting down a surveillance balloon.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is a simulation made using a video game. It does not show actual US forces shooting down a surveillance balloon.
Since the first week of February, the US Air Force has shot down a Chinese “spy” balloon and three smaller objects in American airspace. The United States Department of Defense has alleged the incident was part of an extensive Chinese global surveillance program. China has, meanwhile, maintained that the “spy” balloon was a scientific vessel, and nothing more.
Social media has since seen a deluge of photos and videos of alleged “spy” balloons and unidentified flying objects in the US. One such video, seemingly shot from inside a moving vehicle, shows a disc-shaped object in the sky. Another video shows a fighter aircraft launching a missile at an object in the sky that promptly explodes.
AFWA found that the first video was old and unrelated to alleged spy balloons. And the second video was not real at all. So, let’s look at how we came to these conclusions.
UFO? NOT REALLY
With the help of a reverse search, we found the first video (with the disc-like object in the sky) shared on Twitter and YouTube in 2020. The caption to one such video read: “New Jersey UFO sighting”. We noticed that while responding to tweets sharing this video, many people pointed out that the object seen in the clip was a blimp.
We also found the same video in many news reports from 2020. As per these reports, the flying object seen in the sky was a blimp belonging to Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. A representative of Goodyear confirmed to Insider that the company flew a blimp in New York City and northern New Jersey to capture aerial footage of a National Football League match on September 14, 2020, at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey’s East Rutherford.
Thus, it became clear that this video had nothing to do with the recent spate of alleged surveillance objects in American airspace.
JET SET GO
The video of the jets appeared animated and not real. A keyword search on YouTube led us to multiple simulation videos that depicted the shooting of the Chinese “spy” balloon by the US. A longer version of the now-viral video was uploaded to a gaming YouTube channel called “Growling Sidewinder” on February 5. Around 45 seconds into this video, we observed the viral clip.
The title of the video noted that the combat flight simulation game “Digital Combat Simulator” was used to make the video. The description of the video also listed the hardware and software used in the creation of this simulation.
This channel also featured many other simulations of aerial combat.
It is hence clear that while this video does show a Chinese “spy” balloon being shot, it’s not real at all.
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