Internet Fooled By Viral Post Identifying Delta Pilot That Crash Landed In Toronto As Adult Film Star Johnny Sins: “This Guy Is A Hero”

You can’t believe everything you read on the internet…

That certainly rings true as we enter into this artificial intelligence era, where a few words or a phrase typed into a computer can generate a photo. AI is still in its early stages, so there are typically some giveaways as to what’s real and what’s computer generated. However, as we’ve already seen too many times, even a bad AI job is enough to fool some gullible people. Even if “Grok” is watermarked on the photo…

The most recent example we have of individuals being fooled by the internet stems from the Delta flight that crash landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada a couple of days ago, leaving the aircraft upside down as passengers waited to be rescued by emergency personnel. Miraculously, all 80 people that were on board survived the scary incident.

Naturally, when things like that happen (and plane-related news has been happening a lot lately), people flock to social media for more information. Is that the safest way of getting news? Probably not. But do most of us all depend on social sites for our news now? You betchya, and those that were looking for updates on the crash came across this post “identifying the pilot.”

Some of the details in the caption (as well as the clearly AI generated image) should have been a dead giveaway that this was a joke:

“This is Jonathan Simpson, the pilot of today’s Delta crash in Toronto, Canada. Thanks to over 420 flight hours in 69 types of aircraft, his quick thinking saved countless lives.”

This is Jonathan Simpson, the pilot of today's Delta crash in Toronto, Canada.

Thanks to over 420 flight hours in 69 types of aircraft, his quick thinking saved countless lives.

Can this hero get a RT?

1 like = 1 respect pic.twitter.com/ncfJBIrdt7

— Mrs. Brassenstein (@MBrassenstein) February 17, 2025

As the community note above says, the photo above is most definitely not the Delta pilot that crash landed the plane in Canada. That’s actually adult film star Johnny Sins, or it would probably be better to say an AI generated photo of him. Someone typed in “Johnny Sins as Delta pilot” into an AI image generator and that’s what it popped out. If you look closely, that’s not even Delta’s actual logo on his shirt.

But that didn’t stop some people from 1) falling for it and 2) disagreeing strongly with the post calling the crash-landing-pilot a hero:

What was the quick thinking that made the plane end upside down?

— Daniel Adamscheck (@adamscheck) February 17, 2025

We have no idea what happened yet. This post is premature and should be deleted.

— Moe (@MauriceCooley) February 17, 2025

The heroes were the flight attendants who got people off the plane

— Sharon Jumper (@SharonJumper) February 18, 2025

These numbers make no sense

— Jay Esswell (@AdjustJeff) February 17, 2025

Only 420, that’s not a lot.

— Maureen Cunningham (@MaureeninSA) February 17, 2025

Those people evidently thought the AI image – and the post along with it – were real.

I would imagine that things became more clear once the post was “Community Noted,” meaning that someone from X clarified that the post was fake, that wasn’t a picture of the Delta pilot, and that it obviously set out to satirically depict adult film star Johnny Sins as the pilot. So that basically ended the confusion (or at least it should have).

Though not before some others decided to get in on the joke:

This guy is a hero, and my wife absolutely adores him for some reason. He is a patriot and deserves our respect.

— Burt Macklin (@BurtMaclin_FBI) February 17, 2025

Always flipping them upside down, johnny does

— SIC TEE CO (@SIC_TEES_CO) February 18, 2025

That’s the guy who gave my mom & wife flying lessons!

— Black Belt Investor (@BlackBeltTweets) February 18, 2025

He quickly switched over to his other job to stop the fire. pic.twitter.com/BfjGNPPbDn

— Adriaan (@AdriaanZA) February 18, 2025

Is this not Johnny sins lmao

— Brandon (@kysbrandon666) February 17, 2025

Yes… yes it is….

Johnny is frequently used for jokes like this. Back in 2022, his photo in a military uniform snuck its way onto the jumbotron during the Skol Salute to veterans.

The Vikings got baited into displaying Johnny Sins on their jumbotron… absolutely fantastic pic.twitter.com/urTov6jhPf

— Cumanders (@cumanders2) November 20, 2022