Original article (in Bosnian) was published on 10/04/2026; Author: Nerma Šehović
What are the claims?
The video shows a fire on a US aircraft carrier.
What are the facts?
The video was created using artificial intelligence.
On March 29, 2026, the Facebook profile Miroslav Kozakiv published a reel allegedly showing the arrival of a damaged US aircraft carrier in the port of Split, accompanied by the caption “Croatia targeted by Iran”.
By the time this analysis was written, the reel had received 82.000 views. The same video was also shared in posts in other languages.
What are the facts?
Nearly a month after the start of the war in the Middle East and the US and Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28, 2026, the US aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford arrived at the port of Split in Croatia. The vessel’s construction began in 2005, and it has been in service with the US Navy since 2017 (link).
In early March 2026, the USS Gerald R. Ford took part in US attacks on Iran after already spending nine months on active duty. On March 12, a major fire broke out aboard the ship which, according to sailors’ claims, lasted for 30 hours before being extinguished and destroyed crew sleeping quarters. The fire reportedly started in the laundry room, and several sailors were injured.
Afterward, the ship sailed to a port in Crete for repairs and then to Split, Croatia, for further maintenance. It arrived in Split on March 28 and departed on April 2, 2026. According to Croatian media reports and the US Embassy in Croatia, this was a planned visit and maintenance stop, and the vessel had also visited Split in 2023 and 2025.
Therefore, the US aircraft carrier that participated in military operations against Iran was indeed in Croatia. However, the video circulating on social media that allegedly shows the ship is not authentic.
A Google search did not return any results confirming that this or any other footage showed a fire aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford. Along with the unusually high video quality, this indicates that the footage was generated using artificial intelligence.
The AI-content detection tool Hive Moderation also assessed there to be a 99,2% probability that the video was AI-generated.
Therefore, the US aircraft carrier that participated in the war in the Middle East was indeed in the port of Split at the time the analyzed post was shared. However, the AI-generated footage in the post does not show the carrier in Split.Based on the facts above, we rate the post sharing the AI-generated video without noting that it does not depict the ship that arrived in Split as manipulation of facts.
