Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB has officially admitted its wartime claim of shooting down Israeli F-35 jets was false.
Head of IRIB Peyman Jebelli said the reports were “not reliable” and “damaged our credibility,” adding:
“We were not in the sky to witness the crash.”
The reports had circulated during the brief June 2025 Israel-Iran war and were later exposed as AI-generated or unrelated footage.
The F-35 crash image shows the canopy intact, indicating the pilot didn’t eject, which experts suggest was the work of an amateur who generated an image using AI.
Following Iranian state media claims that its forces shot down two Israeli fighter jets, an image circulated online falsely purporting to show the wreckage of an F-35.
The photo, which shows a large jet crash-landing in a desert, quickly spread across platforms like Threads and South Korean forums, including Aagag and Ruliweb. An Israeli official dismissed the shootdown claim as ‘fake news’.
The image’s caption in Korean read: ‘The F-35 shot down by Iran. Much bigger than I thought.’ However, a detailed AFP analysis found the photo contained several hallmarks of AI generation.
People near the aircraft appear the same size as buses, and one vehicle appears to merge with the road — visual anomalies common in synthetic images.
In addition to size distortions, the aircraft’s markings did not match those used on actual Israeli F-35s. Lockheed Martin specifications confirm the F-35 is just under 16 metres long, unlike the oversized version shown in the image.
Furthermore, the wing insignia in the image differed from the Israeli Air Force’s authentic emblem.
Amid escalating tensions between Iran and Israel, such misinformation continues to spread rapidly. Although AI-generated content is becoming more sophisticated, inconsistencies in scale, symbols, and composition remain key indicators of digital fabrication.
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