After the storm incident in Kittilä How a fake picture brings Swiss into disrepute
A Swiss Airbus A220-300 got caught in a snowdrift on the taxiway in Kittilä, Finland. Now the airline has to deal with false images on the Internet.
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- A Swiss plane was hit by a strong gust of wind on the taxiway in Kittilä (Finland) on Saturday and spun around.
- It hit a snow bank at the edge of the tarmac, but no one was injured.
- AI-generated images misrepresent the incident on the internet.
On Saturday (December 27), a Swiss Airbus coming from Geneva was caught in a gust of winter storm Hannes after landing in Kittilä. The aircraft was on the runway with its brakes set when it was turned into a snow bank by strong winds. There were no injuries among the 150 passengers. "There was no danger to passengers or crew," said an airline spokeswoman after the incident.
As the news magazine "aeroTELEGRAPH" reports, the Airbus A220-300 was towed to its parking position in Kittilä after the storm mishap. Swiss then flew in a mechanic from Zurich. He visually checked the landing gear and released the A220 for a ferry flight to Zurich without passengers.
Youtuber flips the plane onto its roof
Manipulated or completely AI-generated images and videos purporting to show the incident are now circulating on the internet. Some are easily recognizable as fakes. Others appear surprisingly credible at first glance.
Aviation Youtuber Aaron Rheins created a computer-generated video of the incident that shows the Swiss plane turning 180 degrees before finally coming to rest on its roof in the snow. Of course, this is a fake. Not all viewers of the video will notice the superimposed text line "Not this aggressively lol". It indicates that the incident in Kittilä did not happen like this.
Deceptively real AI depiction
Other images online may look more credible, but they are no less fake. On the portal "The Traveller", there is an image of an A220-300 being pulled out of the snow by a towing vehicle. Several people in high-visibility clothing are standing in front of the aircraft, with two lighter trucks positioned behind it. The airport terminal can be seen in the background.
The picture actually looks deceptively real. However, it has neither an image source nor any indication of whether it was AI-generated. "The Traveller" does, however, state in the small print of its terms and conditions that all images used on its website are created using AI for illustration purposes.
Swiss spokesperson warns against false images
A Swiss spokesperson told "aeroTELEGRAPH" that the image was fake: "It was dark at the time of the incident, but the image shows a twilight situation." And further: "The position of the aircraft shown is not correct, it cannot possibly have been standing in front of the terminal in this way."
The example of the Swiss aircraft illustrates once again that images on the internet should never be believed without reservation and should always be checked for authenticity. AI-generated images that are not labeled as such often appear deceptively real, but often misrepresent what is happening.
Swiss also expressly condemns this type of reporting. "Such images may appear spectacular and generate attention, but they do not convey a realistic picture of the event and do not contribute to an objective classification," says the spokesperson.
