Fact-checkers debunk fake BBC deepfake report on Flydubai hijacking attempt

TLDR

• A fabricated video dressed up as a BBC news report claims an Indian passenger and the pilot were behind a Flydubai hijacking attempt.¹
• France24's Truth or Fake team ran it through the Mever/InVID deepfake detector, which scored it 99% AI-generated.¹
• They traced the real source footage to BBC presenter Sally Bundock, filmed two days before the fake clip surfaced.¹
• Newschecker.in independently reached the same conclusion, matching the backdrop and voice to a genuine BBC video about OpenAI from September 29.²

A video styled as a BBC news segment and claiming an Indian passenger and the Flydubai pilot were behind a recent hijacking attempt has circulated online, but it is fabricated from the ground up.¹² France24's Truth or Fake team ran the clip through the Mever/InVID deepfake-detection tool, which flagged it as 99% likely AI-generated.¹ Reporters then traced the real footage it was built from to BBC presenter Sally Bundock, recorded two days before the fake version began spreading.¹

Why it matters: two outlets reached the same conclusion through different methods, which is the strongest kind of debunk. Newschecker.in's India-based team worked independently, using keyword searches and checks against BBC's own website and YouTube channel before running a reverse image search that led to a genuine BBC video about OpenAI published September 29.² Comparing the voice and on-screen graphics between the real and fake clips confirmed the AI generation.²

Driving the news: the fabricated report surfaced days after a real hijacking attempt involving a Flydubai flight, giving it a plausible news hook that made it spread faster than a generic deepfake would.¹² Both France24 and Newschecker found the clip relied on a legitimate BBC broadcast as its visual template, with the audio and captions altered to fabricate the hijacking claim.¹²