Doubts surface over authenticity of China paraglider’s thundercloud flight video

BEIJING – A Chinese paraglider’s account of having been unwittingly swept into a thundercloud and dragged 8km into the sky has come under question after his video of the incident, carried by Chinese state media, turned out to have been likely faked in part.

The video, posted after the May 24 flight by his support team on Douyin, China’s TikTok, employed artificial intelligence to fake some of the footage, according to a review by a digital security firm consulted by Reuters.

The video’s opening showed Mr Peng Yujiang, 55, among the clouds, his face encrusted with ice.

The video was aired in China and distributed internationally by state-run broadcaster CCTV.

California-based digital security firm GetReal said it was “fairly confident” the first five seconds of the video contained AI-generated images.

There are also inconsistencies noted by GetReal and paragliders who pored over the video. Mr Peng’s legs are initially dangling without the insulating cocoon shown later. His helmet is first white, then black.

Still, five expert paragliders interviewed by Reuters said it was possible that he had flown to 8,589m as he claimed and survived. But four of them also challenged his claim that the flight had been an unavoidable accident.

The current record for a planned flight is held by French pilot Antoine Girard who flew 8,407m over a stretch of the Himalayas in 2021.

Mr Peng recorded and then deleted his flight log on XContest, a website popular among paragliders, according to Mr Jakub Havel, a Czech paraglider who helps run the forum. The latter said other flights by Mr Peng remained on the site.

“Nobody intentionally lets themselves be sucked into a thunderstorm cloud in an attempt to break a record – it’s something that any sane paragliding pilot tries to avoid at all costs,” said Mr Havel, adding that Mr Peng’s flight should not be considered a record.

Mr Peng could not be reached for comment. CCTV, which distributed the video on a platform owned by Reuters, could not be reached for comment.

Like other Chinese media, CCTV faces a pending regulation from Beijing that requires all AI-generated content to be labelled as such from September.

Contacted on the weekend, China’s State Council, which oversees and coordinates government policy, had no immediate comment.

In a statement, Reuters said it had removed the CCTV package on Mr Peng’s flight from Reuters Connect, an online marketplace that carries material from more than 100 news organisations.

“This content is clearly labelled as third-party content and is not verified or endorsed by Reuters,” the statement said.

“When we became aware of a piece of content that likely contained AI-generated elements on the Reuters Connect platform, we investigated and took it down because the material does not comply with our partner content policy.”

Storm clouds

In a report published on May 28, the Gansu Aeronautical Sports Association said Mr Peng had broken an altitude record after being swept off the ground by a strong wind while testing second-hand gear he had just bought.

“According to Peng, he didn’t plan on taking off,” the report said.

The association, a private group that oversees air sports in the province, did not respond to a request for comment. It deleted its report on Mr Peng’s flight from its WeChat account and by May 29 the association’s website was blocked.

The association suspended Mr Peng from flying for six months. A member of his flight team was suspended for six months for releasing the video without authorisation.

Expert pilots interviewed by Reuters said there were reasons to doubt Mr Peng’s flight was a fluke accident, saying he was either trying to make an unauthorised high ascent or should have seen the risk.

Storm clouds like the one Mr Peng flew in “don’t just appear above your head and hoover you into space. They build over a period of time,” said Daniel Wainwright, a flight instructor in Australia. “He shouldn’t have been flying.”

The specialised heavy mittens shown in the video seem to undercut Mr Peng’s claim he had not intended to take off, said Mr Brad Harris, president of the Tasmanian Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association.

He added that he believed Mr Peng may have made up the accidental take-off to avoid sanction for entering restricted airspace.

“These are not things you would normally wear or have ready if you were just ground-handling to test a wing,” Mr Harris said.

Mr Godfrey Wenness, a former paragliding distance world record holder, said a veteran paraglider could have managed to reverse the extreme but manageable ascent shown in Mr Peng’s flight data.

“He was either inexperienced or he was trying to (keep climbing),” Mr Wenness added. He believed Mr Peng hit the altitude he claimed based on flight data posted on XContest and then deleted.

That data has to be transferred from a GPS in a “tamper-proof” format, he said. “We conclude and are confident that the actual flight did occur.” REUTERS