AFP verification found that a 15-second cockpit clip shared as footage of an August 2026 Myanmar military jet crash actually originates from a US military archive and was filmed in Texas. The video matches a DVIDS HUD recording of a T-45C Goshawk ingesting a bird during descent and aligns with a 2021 Lake Worth, Texas training accident. Myanmar’s Information Ministry said the August 2026 incident involved a bird strike and reported no casualties; the circulated clip is unrelated.
Old US Cockpit Video Falsely Shared As Myanmar Jet Crash Footage — Traced To Texas
Screenshot of falsely shared TikTok video taken on August 6, 2026, with a red X added by AFP
AFP verification shows a 15-second cockpit clip that circulated on social media after early August 2026 reports of a Myanmar military jet crash did not originate in Myanmar. The footage was first published on a US military archive in 2022 and can be geolocated to the Lake Worth/Fort Worth area in Texas.
What The Clip Shows
The short clip, shared in Burmese-language TikTok posts on August 4, 2026, carries superimposed text claiming to be the "Black box record of Tatmadaw fighter jet crash." It shows a head-up display (HUD) view of an aircraft on final approach, a bird entering the frame, an apparent loss of control and an impact in a residential area.
Screenshot comparisons of falsely shared video (L) and the video published by Digital Visual Information Distribution System
How It Was Verified
Frame-by-frame keyword and reverse-image searches located a higher-quality version of the same footage on the US military's Digital Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS), uploaded on September 16, 2022. The DVIDS caption identifies the recording as HUD footage from a T-45C Goshawk assigned to Training Squadron (VT) 22, showing the jet ingesting a large bird during descent toward a runway at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth. Satellite imagery and other visual comparisons match the Fort Worth/Lake Worth location.
Official US Account Of The Incident
The US Navy issued a press release saying a T-45C Goshawk training aircraft crashed into a residential area in Lake Worth on September 19, 2021, damaging at least three homes; no casualties were reported. US media outlets previously used the same DVIDS visuals when reporting on that 2021 incident.
Screenshot comparisons of the video published by Digital Visual Information Distribution System (L) and Google Earth images, with highlights added by AFP
Myanmar Context And Misinformation
Separately, Myanmar authorities reported an unrelated incident on August 3, 2026, in Hmawbi Township near Yangon, saying an engine failure during routine training was caused by a bird strike and that there were no casualties. Following such reports, old footage and unrelated videos are often recirculated on social media with false claims. Comments under the viral post indicated many viewers believed the clip was authentic.
Why This Matters
This case highlights how archived or unrelated material can be repurposed to falsely depict current events — especially in high-tension contexts such as Myanmar's ongoing conflict following the 2021 coup. Verification techniques used here — reverse-image searches, archive checks, and geolocation — are essential to separate true accounts from recycled footage.
Takeaway: The widely shared cockpit clip is not from the August 2026 Myanmar incident; it traces to an earlier US training accident and a DVIDS upload from 2022.
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