Video presented as "proof" a plane never hit the WTC south tower actually shows no such thing

A few days after the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, former British Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen cast doubt on the official account of the attacks, implying that no plane actually struck the south tower of the World Trade Center.

On September 15, 2026, Bridgen posted a video on X that he claimed showed proof of this. The post gathered more than a million views. Filmed from a helicopter, the footage shows the north tower already burning, followed by an explosion in the south tower — but no plane is visible in the clip. Bridgen asked where the plane that caused the explosion had been.

Full version shows the plane

In fact, the south tower was struck by a hijacked United Airlines Boeing 767, commandeered by al Qaeda terrorists. A reverse image search leads to a longer version of the same video, also available on YouTube. It was filmed live by Chopper 4, a helicopter operated by US network NBC. In this fuller version, a plane is visible as a small dot moving toward the south tower moments before the explosion.

The actual moment of impact is not visible in Bridgen's clip because the plane struck the opposite side of the tower from the helicopter's vantage point.

Impact on the tower's south face

According to the official US commission report on the September 11 attacks, hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the south face of the south tower. Geolocation analysis confirms the NBC helicopter was filming from the north side of the tower, meaning the tower itself blocked the view of the impact.

The collision is clearly visible in several other videos filmed from different angles that day, including well-known footage by cameraman Evan Fairbanks, who was standing at the base of the south tower and captured the plane striking its south face.