Fact check: Altered video falsely claims to show UFO aboard US aircraft carrier
The claim: Video shows UFO stationed aboard aircraft carrier
A video shared on Facebook claims to show evidence the military has stationed UFOs aboard aircraft carriers.
The 40-second video shows a fighter jet, identified by a narrator as an F-18, landing on the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford in 2018, purportedly in the Mediterranean
“As it goes to touch down, we actually see a triangular-shaped UFO, like something that would be right out of an alien movie,” says a woman identified as Krissy Eliot.
The video was watched over 10,000 times in less than 24 hours since it was posted on Jan. 19.
The video has been around social media platforms since as early as 2018, when Iranian media published an article about it that made it go viral within a few days.
While the video shows an authentic landing on an aircraft carrier, it has been altered to show the purported triangular UFO.
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USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who posted the video for comment.
Video altered to show the purported triangular UFO
An official U.S. Navy video posted on YouTube in July 2017 confirms the jet in the video is a F/A-18F Super Hornet, the service’s primary strike and air superiority aircraft.
The video shows the plane approaching the ship and quickly coming to a stop after touching down on the carrier’s deck. A helicopter can be seen in the Facebook video next to the purported UFO.
The Navy video depicts the landing from four different angles, and the purported UFO is nowhere to be seen.
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Additionally, the video’s caption says the landing is aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford in the Atlantic Ocean, not the Mediterranean.
The Navy didn’t immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment, but a spokesperson told Lead Stories the video had been altered.
A similar video posted by USNI News, a news outlet affiliated with the nonprofit U.S. Naval Institute, also shows there wasn’t a triangular-shaped aircraft aboard the ship.
Our rating: Altered
Based on our research, we rate ALTERED a video that claims to show a UFO stationed aboard an aircraft carrier. An official video posted by the U.S. Navy shows the ship’s deck was clear of any triangular-shaped aircraft. The video has been around since as early as 2018 when it gained traction after Iranian media wrote about it.
Our fact-check sources:
- UFO Aliens Ovni X, Sept. 8, 2018, Facebook post
- Business Insider, Sept. 17, 2018, Bad photoshop fools Iranian media into thinking US aircraft carriers are testing UFOS
- Military.com, accessed Jan. 19, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet
- U.S. Navy via YouTube, July 29, 2017, First Fixed Wing Aircraft Recovered Aboard USS Gerald R. Ford
- Lead Stories, Jan. 18, Fact Check: That Was NO UFO On A U.S. Navy Ship – It Was Photoshop
- USNI News Video via YouTube, July 28, 2017, Fighter Lands on Next Generation Carrier USS Gerald R. Ford for the First Time
- 13 News Now, Aug. 1, 2017, Pilot recognized for first arrested landing, launch aboard USS Gerald R. Ford
- MacDill Air Force Base, accessed Jan. 19, Super Hornet trains arrested landing
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