Experts confirm Palm Beach crash video is real

A Learjet 60 crashed in Palm Beach County, Florida, on November 1.

The business jet was traveling from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas when it hit the ground. It struck a neighborhood near Cresthaven at approximately 12:51 p.m. ET. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed on November 1 that everyone on board died.

Footage of the impact shows the plane nosediving at full speed. The aircraft cratered the pavement and quickly dissolved into fire and smoke. The video has been shared by The Associated Press, CNN, CBS News, and the BBC. These outlets verified the clip as authentic.

Some users on the social platform X questioned the footage. A post from November 1 claimed the video was 100 percent AI generated. The post included a screen recording of an AI detection tool called Hive Moderation. That tool reportedly flagged the clip as containing AI generated content. Other X accounts echoed this doubt.

Aki Kuusisto, a digital creator from West Palm Beach, first shared the clip on Facebook. He installed the dashcam on his vehicle. In the comments on his post, Kuusisto said the crash was not what he had in mind when he installed the device. When PolitiFact submitted Kuusisto’s original footage to Hive Moderation, the tool did not flag it as AI generated or manipulated.

Darren Linvill, co-director of the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University, said people are right to be skeptical of viral videos as AI technology improves. However, he noted that some people have grown so distrustful of AI that they disbelieve true events. Linvill called this phenomenon the liar’s dividend. He explained that people become accustomed to being lied to and struggle to recognize the truth when it is presented.

Linvill added that one of the X accounts questioning the crash footage has been amplified by bot accounts. These bots promote narratives for Russian Storm 1516. That campaign uses influencers to push false claims in the United States and other countries.

Authorities have not yet determined the cause of the crash. Tom Chapman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said on November 2 that the aircraft experienced turbulence and encountered ice. The agency is currently investigating the incident.

Timothy Monville, who is leading the investigation for the safety board, said the federal agency has just begun documenting the incident. He noted that the team has a lot of work to do on the scene. Monville said the process will take several days. The biggest obstacle is recovering the major wreckage from the impacted crater on the roadway.

The crash highlights how common personal recording devices have become. Linvill advised people to get their news from reliable sources. He stated that the video of the Palm Beach crash is authentic despite its dramatic and frightening nature.