China paraglider’s thundercloud survival claim featured likely AI-faked video

Chinese paraglider Peng Yujiang says he "definitely won't fly for a while" after surviving high altitude accident. (CCTV via Reuters via CNN Newsource)

A Chinese paraglider’s account of having been unwittingly swept into a thundercloud and dragged 8 kilometres (5 miles) 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, originally posted after the paraglider’s 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 Peng Yujiang, 55, among the clouds, his face encrusted with ice. The video, which caused a sensation in paragliding circles, was aired in China and distributed internationally by state-run broadcaster CCTV. Other news providers also distributed the video, which was picked up globally.

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

There are also inconsistencies noted by GetReal and paragliders who pored over the video: 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 Peng had flown to 8,589 metres (28,179 feet) as he claimed and survived. But four of them also challenged his claim that the flight had been an unavoidable accident, which Reuters is reporting for the first time.

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

Peng recorded and then deleted his flight log on XContest, a website popular among paragliders, according to Jakub Havel, a Czech paraglider who helps run the forum. Havel said other flights by 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 Havel, who said Peng’s flight should not be considered a record.

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 labeled 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 Peng’s flight from Reuters Connect, an online marketplace that carries material from more than 100 news organizations.

“This content is clearly labeled 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 Wednesday, the Gansu Aeronautical Sports Association said 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 Peng’s flight from its WeChat account and by Thursday the association’s website was blocked.

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

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

Storm clouds like the one 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 specialized heavy mittens shown in the video seem to undercut Peng’s claim he had not intended to take off, said Brad Harris, president of the Tasmanian Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association. He said he believed Peng may have made up the accidental take-off to avoid sanction for entering restricted air space.

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

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 Peng’s flight data.

“He was either inexperienced or he was trying to (keep climbing),” Wenness said.

Wenness said, however, he believed 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,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Beijing newsroomEditing by Kevin Krolicki and Frances Kerry)