Claim: A video shows the test flight of a single-seat helicopter made by a young Pakistani man using iron, scrap metal, and empty cans.
Fact: The video is likely AI-generated. There are no verifiable reports about such a development, nor has the individual or his city been identified. Multiple detectors confirm that the clip is created synthetically.
In late November 2025, numerous social media users and news outlets posted a video that apparently shows the test flight of a small helicopter that a young Pakistani man made by using iron, old metals, and empty boxes (archived here, here, here, here, here, and here).
The clip depicts a man in a green shalwar kameez operating a single-seat helicopter — featuring a single wheel — using two cyclic sticks in each hand, with ridiculously small rotor blades, going around in a circle before reversing.
Onlookers can be seen filming the supposed helicopter with their mobile phones.
Just as the helicopter in question reverses, the video cuts to an airborne chopper but there’s no connection in the middle, thus omitting a key moment where the aircraft could have been seen taking off.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check did not find any authentic reports with verifiable sources about such a development. We also did not come across any identifiable information about the man who apparently built such a helicopter.
The posts or news reports that we did come across only cited social media videos or posts as the source but did not provide any verifiable information either.
Interestingly, Google’s “AI Overview” feature — that employs artificial intelligence — also regurgitated the claim without proof and further built upon it with additional commentary, writing, “While some viral videos showing flight may be AI-generated, the core story of the young man building the machine is widely reported.”
Results from the search engine’s “AI Mode” provided the same claim but no corroboration, saying, “Although some posts were identified as AI-generated, other video and image posts indicate that the event likely occurred.”
We did observe multiple tell-tale signs of AI-generated content in the video, such as multiple people in the background holding their mobile phones in an unnatural manner, with one of them with a hand up that should have been holding the device. There is also an individual who appears to have three arms. Additionally, there is no sand flying due to the impact of a helicopter taking off, especially given that it is doing so in a field.
We then ran the video through multiple AI detection tools, such as DeepFake-O-Meter, Hive Moderation, and Zhuque AI Detection Assistant.
Of the detectors available on DeepFake-O-Meter, a tool developed by the University at Buffalo’s Media Forensics Lab (UB MDFL), we used five: DSP-FWA, SBI, TALL, WAV2LIP-STA, and XCLIP. According to them, the probabilities of the video being AI-generated were 84.8%, 55.1%, 99.8%, 28.1%, and 77.9%, respectively.
Hive Moderation stated that the probability of the video being AI-generated was 85%, while Zhuque AI Detection Assistant yielded a probability of 100%.
On the other hand, we found multiple videos on TikTok that depict similar unheard-of contraptions available also on different accounts with AI in their usernames such as @unrealicai and @ai_empire. This indicates that the “homemade airplane” and “homemade helicopter” have become a new viral trend on social media, with one of the clips being passed off as authentic by many social media users, journalists, and media outlets.
Pakistan has witnessed similar fraudulent claims in the past as well, when Agha Waqar Ahmad from Khairpur, Sindh, claimed to have invented a car that could run on water in 2012. However, “established scientists have debunked his spectacular claims”, with nuclear physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy saying it “simply cannot work” as the “laws of physics … impose inviolable constraints”.
Then, there was Rehan Aziz Farooqi from Swat, who claimed to have “invented a unique power generator that runs solely on water”. Hoodbhoy, again, criticised.
Interestingly, however, not all is bogus. In February 2015, two brothers from Peshawar claimed they had made an ultralight helicopter. They have made newer models too in 2020.
Soch Fact Check concludes that the video in question, claiming to show a small helicopter made using iron, scrap metal, and empty cans, is AI-generated.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim circulating on multiple social media platforms.
It was shared here on X (formerly Twitter), here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here, here, here, here, and here on Instagram, and here, here, and here on Threads.
The video was also posted here, here, here, and here on TikTok.
Conclusion: The video is likely AI-generated. There are no verifiable reports about such a development nor the individual or his city identified. Multiple detectors confirm that the clip is created synthetically.
Background image in cover photo: Ashutosh Pandey
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com