In early November 2023, a video of a giant glowing skeleton near the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in the UAE was widely circulated on the Internet - allegedly it was a drone show staged in honor of Halloween. We decided to check if this video is true.
An eight-second video with a spectacular drone show on November 1, 2023 was published by some Russian media (for example, “Arguments and facts" And Russia News), and also informational And entertaining portals. Social media users also shared the impressive video (“VKontakte", Instagram*, X), blog platforms (“Zen", "Peekaboo"") and video hosting (YouTube, TikTok). The video also became popular on Telegram: it was posted, in particular, in the channels “CyberAx"(879,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), 4ch (426,000), "KB"(249,000), "Truthfulness"(225,000), "Mousetrap"(208,000), etc.
All reports about the Halloween show near the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai contain the same eight-second video or screenshots from it. “Verified” could not find any videos other than this short video in the media (Russian and foreign) or social networks. This raises questions: it is difficult to imagine that only one out of thousands of possible eyewitnesses to such a show filmed and posted the video on the Internet. If the video had been true, hundreds of other photos and videos of the glowing skeleton, captured from different angles, would have been posted on social networks. At the same time, at the beginning of the viral video, passers-by are visible, who for some reason ignore that the skeleton is the size of the Burj Khalifa (and height this skyscraper - 828 m) is about to “step” on them - they are simply walking along the street, not paying any attention to the incredible show supposedly unfolding above their heads.
In the official account The skyscraper on Instagram often posts photos and videos of light shows and other events taking place near the Burj Khalifa, but there is no mention of a show with a giant drone skeleton. In addition, drone flights in the vicinity of the tallest building in the world prohibited. To stage such a show using hundreds of drones would require special permission from the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority. At the same time, it is completely unclear from the video why the show was supposedly held in this particular no-fly zone: spending time on coordination with the authorities would be logical if some large-scale event on the occasion of Halloween was taking place there and the drone show was part of it. However, nothing other than the skeleton in the video indicates that a celebration is taking place there: passers-by are not dressed up in fancy dress, and there are no holiday-themed decorations.
In addition, experts say that the movements of the skeleton are unrealistic. Preston Ward, chief pilot of the American company Sky Elements, specializing in drone shows, disassembled video on your Instagram account. He, too, pointed out that the audience in the video was not paying attention to the performance, and noted that existing technology does not allow the drone figures to move at such speed. Ward knows what he's talking about, because in July 2023 his company came in into the Guinness Book of Records with the largest phrase (“Happy 4th of July 2023”) ever composed by a drone in the air. In addition to this aerial installation on celebration On the Independence Day of the United States, the company’s pilots “folded” drones into other iconic figures for the country, such as an eagle or an astronaut.
Judging by Google search results, the first video with a skeleton near the Burj Khalifa called “Scary Halloween from Geoscan Drone Show” was published in TikTok Russian company Geoscan, specializing in the production of drones and organizing shows with their participation (at the time of writing the analysis, the video was deleted from the account, but remained archival copy).
Previously, Geoscan really organized spectacular drone shows - for example, at World Cup on horse racing in 2022 in the same Dubai or at celebration 568th anniversary of the capture of Constantinople in Istanbul. These projects are described on the company’s website, including in fairly detailed videos, which depict not only the show itself from different angles, but also the preparation for it. However, there is not a word about a large-scale Halloween performance next to the Burj Khalifa either on the Geoscan website or in its accounts in Instagram, YouTube or Vimeo. Edition "Fontanka" asked company about the comment, and they confirmed that this was not a filming of a real show, but a computer animation. Journalists noticed that on October 31, 2023, the official Geoscan group on VKontakte also posted snapshot giant figures of ghosts in the sky over St. Petersburg - this was also just computer graphics.
Geoscan has previously published renderings of possible shows on its social networks, which Internet users mistook for real pictures and distributed with appropriate comments. So, “Verified” in 2021 sorted it out claims that on Day of the Dead in Mexico, hundreds of drones lined up in the sky in the shape of skulls. The original sources of the images were Geoscan’s Instagram posts, where the company shared examples of how drones could decorate a celebration. At that time, the text under the photographs left no doubt that these were just renderings and not real shows. The video being dismantled with a skeleton was not accompanied by such an unambiguous signature, so it is not surprising that users mistook it for the real thing.
Thus, the video of a skeleton “walking” next to the Burj Khalifa skyscraper during Halloween is nothing more than a rendering of a company that provides drone show services.
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Cover photo: TikTok screenshot geoscan.show
Read on the topic:
- V.C. Shedding Light on Magic: Drone Show. Beginner's Guide
- Is it true that the photo shows a drone show during the Day of the Dead in Mexico?
- Is it true that a giant Barbie appeared next to the Burj Khalifa?
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please let us know by highlighting the error text and clicking Ctrl+Enter.
