A video showing passengers recording a cat sitting on the wing of an aeroplane during its take-off, from inside the plane, is going viral on social media (here, here, and here). The post is being shared with the claim that it is a real incident. Let’s verify the claim made in the post in this article.
Claim: The video shows a real incident of a cat sitting on the wing of an aeroplane during its take-off.
Fact: This viral video does not depict a real incident. It was created using Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI detection tool Hive AI confirmed a 99.9% likelihood that the visuals are AI-generated. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Upon closer observation, a watermark reading “Veo” is visible in the bottom-right corner, indicating that the video was likely created using Google’s Veo AI model (here, here, here, and here).
To further verify whether the viral video was AI-generated, we analysed it using AI content detection tools. Hive, an AI content detection tool, indicated a 99.9% likelihood that the video was AI-generated. Based on this evidence, it is clear that this particular video in question is AI-generated and does not depict a real incident.
We didn’t find any credible media reports claiming a real incident of a cat on an aeroplane wing during take-off. However, the only verified case involved a Ryanair flight in February 2025 from Rome to Germany, delayed for two days after crew members noticed a cat inside the aircraft before take-off. The cat had hidden in the electrical bay, and despite attempts to remove it, the flight was cancelled for safety reasons.
To sum up, an AI-generated video showing a cat sitting on the wing of an aeroplane during its take-off run is being shared as a real incident.
