Kind: captions
Language: en
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See this clip? Many shared it saying
India blew up Pakistan's Nur Khan air
base. We can see it uploaded to many
different social media platforms
numerous amounts of times. The trouble
is while the video is real, it doesn't
show an air base in Pakistan at all. And
so today I'm going to show you in just
over a few minutes exactly where this
video is really filmed and how we
actually know it. And to do this, we're
going to use nothing more than free
tools and a bit of nerdy curiosity. So,
let's geollocate it and debunk it. Hi
everyone, I'm Ben and welcome back to my
channel on open-source investigative
techniques. If you'd like to check out
any of the links mentioned, they're in
the description below. And while you're
there, don't forget to click subscribe.
Otherwise, let's get started.
In May 2025, Indian and Pakistani news
feeds exploded with footage claiming to
show the aftermath of a runway strike.
The Indian army actually confirmed that
they targeted Pakistan's Neuran Air
Base. This part was true. But when the
news went viral online, people forgot to
check the accuracy of the footage they
were sharing. A classic cause of
misinformation. So, what are we going to
do about this? Looking at the footage
shared, we've got some suspicions. So,
we're going to check this footage in
four steps. And these are four steps
that you can use for all types of videos
or photos. First of all, we're going to
search. So, we're going to grab the
frames and do an image reverse search.
Second, we're going to analyze the video
by spotting the hidden clues within the
footage. Third, we're going to verify
where it happened by matching those
clues in Google Earth or Google Maps.
And four, we're going to verify when by
identifying the window of time using
satellite imagery or other existing bits
of material
online. Step one is to look at the video
and have a look for a frame that we
could do an image reverse search on. I'm
going to find a couple of clean frames
that I can then drop into Google image
reverse search. For example, I'm going
to use this frame and a couple of
others. All I will do is make a
screenshot and search for that image.
You can see many results have come up
about Pakistan air base. But you can
also see for example the first result
mention Sedan. Let's take a look at
that. You can also see that when I click
exact matches that I get some other
results that also mention Sedan. This
video appears to show a drive-thru and
alleges that this is in Sudan. It was
also uploaded on April 1,
2025. Well and truly before the video
was uploaded in May. Going back to those
exact matches, let's check out one of
these results that has Arabic text with
it. We can see the exact same video that
we were looking at before, except what
we notice is that the one that we
identified first of all that alleged to
be Pakistan has the text added over the
top. This is simply using another video
but in the wrong context. The Arabic
text indicates that it's a video of the
situation at Kartum airport in Sudan.
So, we've got some context about that
video. We know that it's been uploaded
before. We have some suspicions that
it's definitely not Pakistan, but likely
from Kartum International Airport in
Sudan. Let's take a look now at the
video frame by frame and analyze it and
see what else we can identify. Well,
first of all, we seem to have a couple
of UN planes. Maybe those might be
interesting to search for for Cartoon
International Airport, United Nations
planes. If we did a search for those, we
might be able to identify some more
images and more results. Let's do that
quickly. Now, note that we can see some
other destroyed planes on the tarmac,
and we also see similar UN planes as
well. Going a little bit further through
the footage, we get to see the actual
airport itself. This would probably be
helpful with geoloccation. We can see
some Arabic writing on the airport here.
Funnily enough, even in the video
itself, we can see some tail fins with
Sedan written on the end of them. We
even have a very large plane here. This
looks like an illusion plane. And we
even have the registration for that one
there. Going forward, we also have more
destroyed planes. So, there's a lot
we've got to use in terms of analyzing
exactly where this was and maybe even
thinking about when this was as well.
And that takes us on to step three.
Let's verify where this video was
actually filmed. Now that we can be
pretty sure it's not in Pakistan, let's
show where it was filmed. All directions
point to Kartum, Sudan. So, I'm going to
type in Cartoon International Airport
and go to that location. Now on our
satellite imagery, we can already
identify some areas where there are
destroyed
planes. This might be a good indication
as to where this vehicle was driving
when it was driving past those planes
before. We noticed the first plane had a
tail fin and an engine on the side. It
was actually a red engine as well and a
red tail fin. And the rest of the plane
seems pretty well destroyed. Also, there
was a little tray just before it. By
having a close look at the satellite
imagery already, I'm able to identify
something that looks similar. Let's see
if we can see another plane. There's
another one there. What else can we see
here? We seem to have a un plane or at
least a tail fin here and a wing. It
looks like there's something similar
over here and a very similar angle.
If we go forward, we can actually see a
whole plane that seems to be there. And
looks like it even has its door open.
Let's go forward a bit more.
And I believe we had two large planes
that weren't necessarily destroyed. And
especially that illusion, which should
stand out with its four engines under
its wings. Going down a bit further, I
think that's the illusion that we were
looking at here.
Next to the illution, we should have a
destroyed plane. There's that destroyed
plane. So, we're fairly certain that the
vehicle was driving down this direction,
filming those planes. It's safe to say
that we've geoloccated that pretty well
in Cartoon International Airport. So,
we've answered that third question that
we had of verifying where it was filmed.
So, that takes us on to step four. When
was this footage filmed? Well, that's
always a bit tough to identify the exact
time, but we can definitely identify a
window of time. Let's take a look at the
historical imagery of these planes that
we've just identified during the
geoloccation stage. If we look at April
15,
2023, these planes are looking pretty
good. If we go forward in time, they're
looking quite destroyed. This is in
November 30, 2024.
And this is February 16, 2025. If we
remember back to our footage, many of
these planes were already destroyed,
especially these ones on the left over
here and that one towards the end, or
quite a few towards the end. If we take
a closer look at the satellite imagery,
we might be able to identify some
differences between the images where
there is destruction.
Note that when I'm changing backwards
and forwards between the imagery of
February 16,
2025 and the imagery of November 30,
2024, there's not much change except for
this plane right here. It was destroyed
at some point between November 30,
2024 and February 16, 2025.
If I go backwards and forwards in time
using those two satellite images and
comparing them, we can see that damage.
In the video, we notice that this
specific plane is actually quite close
to the large
illusion. It's not this plane, it's this
plane here. So, if we start at the
illusion, which is here, here's our next
plane with the wing and the engines. And
if we go forward, here's our plane
that's destroyed on the tarmac over
here. But in November 30, the satellite
imagery from November 30, that plane is
not destroyed, which means that this
video must have been filmed after
November 30, 2024. If we take a look at
the imagery from February 16,
2025, we can see that this video indeed
does show the plane as destroyed and the
satellite imagery shows the plane as
destroyed. And so we can most certainly
say that this video was definitely
filmed after that satellite image. So
after November 30, 2024. By following
some of our other Google image reverse
search results, we're able to find some
other alternative angles of some of the
same imagery, which is always helpful
for verification. For example, I was
able to find this video of a vehicle
that was driving in the other direction
showing some of these destroyed planes.
The window of time that we've identified
fits within the context of what was
happening in cartoon at the time. It
most certainly doesn't fit anything to
do with the IndiaPakistan flare up
considering this was towards the end of
2024 and beginning of
2025. These types of skills are used
countless amounts of times to check
misinformation and disinformation
online. And you can even find a full
write up which I contributed to from
Boom Live which is just one of the many
organizations doing checks like this
regularly. So what were the steps that
we went through? Well, next time you see
an exclusive video that you think is a
little bit suspicious, remember the
following steps. One, do an image of a
search to see where else it might exist
online. Two, make sure you watch the
video closely. And three, have a think
about where it's filmed, and four,
perhaps when it's filmed, and does that
time frame fit? And when you expose
fakes or misleading material, it's
always nice to post a polite correction
and link to the evidence. I hope you
enjoyed this session. And if you're a
bit lost with some of the tools and
techniques that I showed in this quick
case study, such as using image averse
search or using Google Earth, check out
my other in-depth tutorials that you can
see on the screen right now that cover
those topics and more. Otherwise, I'll
see you in the next session.
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