Videos of giant drones over US cities are a flight of fancy

AAP FACTCHECK – A spate of unexplained drone sightings in the US has unleashed a flurry of false claims on social media.

One such viral video features what claims to be a mysterious car-sized “high-tech” drone over Las Vegas.

However, the clip was created digitally – computer-generated imagery (CGI) – and features a craft from the video game series Halo.

The video is one of many examples of fake posts circulating following reports of drone activity over New Jersey in the US.

Online speculation about who is controlling the drones — from aliens to foreign adversaries — has been rife since sightings of the unmanned aerial vehicles started to emerge in mid-November, as reported by the BBC.

Speculation has only increased since authorities addressed the concerns in a joint statement, because while the US government states there is nothing to be worried about, the security services have given no specific details about what the drone activity is.

In a follow-up BBC report on December 19, US President Joe Biden was quoted as saying there was nothing nefarious to the drone activity, even though some had occurred near air bases.

The assurances haven’t stopped a burst of online activity by people sharing posts of everything from light plane crashes to replica Star Wars fighters in order to claim evidence of the drones.

In one Facebook post, a video shows a drone flying over Las Vegas while a couple comments on its activity. At one point, the woman asks “What is that?” and the drone then begins to fly away at high speed.

The text alongside the video reads “Just a drone flying over Las Vegas” with a laughing emoji.

Many of the more than 700 comments on the post appear to believe it shows a real drone, including: “These drones are created by our own government, to install fear into everyone.”

A longer version of the video appears in an X post. In the first seconds of the video, a woman’s voice is heard saying: “OK, I’m videoing this and this is one of those drones that everybody’s talking about.”

But the clip is the result of CGI and is labelled as such by its creator, albeit below a misleading description, in the original YouTube version: “This video was created digitally. The craft is a D77-TC Pelican.”

The creator’s YouTube channel is described as “Mixed reality digital aviation videos”.

The D77-TC Pelican is a fictional craft from the Halo game.

There are dozens of other posts suggesting the Pentagon has confirmed the drones are not “of earthly origin”.

One caption reads: “The Pentagon has confirmed that the mysterious drones appearing across the globe are NOT of earthly origin. They are not foreign adversaries—these UFOs are operating freely across our skies, even hovering over military bases and nuclear sites.”

There is no confirmation the drones don’t originate from earth in the accompanying video, despite the poster’s claims.

In a press briefing on December 17, Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder responded to questions about whether the New Jersey drones were Defence assets, saying none of them were.

He said the vast majority of the drones were probably recreational or hobbyist.

“They’re going to be commercial drones, used in things like architecture, engineering, farming or they could be used for law enforcement,” Maj Gen Ryder added.

“Is it possible that some of those drones could be up to malign [sic] activity? It’s entirely possible, but the vast majority, that is not the case.

“In the case of drones flying near or over US military installations … given the volume of drone flights we see on a given day, [that] is not something that’s new.”

Many social media users have shared a video clip they claim is evidence of a drone crashing, with #UFO among its hashtags.

However, frames from the footage are almost identical to those in a CBS News report about the crash of a small plane in New York’s Westchester County on December 12, 2024.

Another post being widely shared recycles a picture that has been around since at least February 2023.

The picture shows a life-sized “TIE fighter” from the Star Wars movies, with a caption that reads: “Breaking news : crashed drone in Orange beach retrieved from water and taken to an undisclosed location for further investigation.”

The replica craft is actually being transported to an almond blossom parade. A March 2023 YouTube clip shows it in the parade, along with a host of Star Wars characters, in a town called Ripon in Wisconsin, US.

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