ORLANDO, Fla. — TikTok, the social media platform known for dance trends, “get ready with me” videos and sometimes useless life hacks, has flooded users’ feeds with a more felonious lesson: giving people step-by-step guides to “stealing” major military equipment.
The trend began last week when the account Cinema History uploaded a video titled, “How to Start an F-16,” which paired the instructions with footage from a realistic flight simulator.
The instructions themselves came in an apparently artificial intelligence-generated song that mixed the words to the sea shanty “Bully in the Alley” and featured declarations like “I stole an F-16!”
Users quickly took to it, responding in the comments with cheeky questions like, “Unrelated, can someone tell/sing me how to land an F-16?”
That prompted Cinema History to release other videos that showed users how to eject from and land the jet as well as operate Apache helicopters, A-10 Warthogs and tanks. Other accounts enthusiastically hopped onto the trend as well.
The speed at which the trend took over feeds had other users making videos asking if it was a “government psy-op.”
How accurate are the instructions? Former 22-year Navy Pilot Rich Owen, after reviewing the F-16 video, confirmed a couple of the steps were slightly off, including terminology for some of the switches and the amount of power the throttle needed.
“All in all, if you sat in the ship and had watched this video, you could start the aircraft,” Owen said, before adding that anyone who dared would find it harder to complete their “Grand Theft Airplane” quest.
“A lot more goes into actually getting the ship airborne,” he explained. “You need power, air and ignition to get any jet started. A (jet fuel starter) provides air to turn the engine… before you move the throttle.”
By the time they realized that, any civilian that did attempt an unauthorized flight would likely find themselves in the hands of federal prosecutors and facing charges for entering the base and stealing the plane, helicopter or tank.
Breaking into a military base carries a federal penalty of six months behind bars, while stealing government property like an F-16 could land someone in prison for up to 10 years and facing a $250,000 fine.
TikTok placed warnings underneath many of the videos calling the actions dangerous. Cinema History added its own disclaimers warning of the legal consequences, saying the videos were for educational purposes only.
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