Khurram Nawaz Gandapur, secretary general of Pakistan's Awami Tehreek Party, tweeted a video clip from Grand Theft Auto V, mistaking it for a real incident of a plane narrowly avoiding an oil truck. He praised the pilot's 'presence of mind' in the post. The clip, from the 2013 game, includes a blooper where the tanker is wrecked shortly after.
On July 11, 2019, Khurram Nawaz Gandapur encountered an embarrassing moment when he shared a video on Twitter, believing it depicted a genuine aviation close call. The footage showed a plane taking off and barely missing an oil tanker on the runway. In his tweet, Gandapur commended the pilot, stating, "If he had just watched the whole video he shared, he would’ve seen a blooper that included the oil tanker getting wrecked in this little stunt."
The video in question is actually a scene from Grand Theft Auto V, a popular open-world game released in 2013, known for its high-fidelity graphics that can sometimes blur the line between fiction and reality. The full clip reveals the tanker exploding just seconds after the plane passes, a scripted event in the game's narrative.
This incident adds to a series of humorous mix-ups in Pakistan involving public figures and media. Previously, a news anchor discussed "Apple" on air, only realizing too late it referred to the tech company, not the fruit. In another case, politicians conducted a Facebook Live press briefing with an unintended cat filter activated, leading to comical visuals.
Gandapur's error highlights how realistic video game visuals can deceive, even among prominent individuals. The story, reported by Team GameAxis and contributed by Tim Augustin, underscores the need for verifying sources in an era of immersive digital media.
