Astonishing flyover at packed South African stadium makes waves: ‘Not AI’

An astonishing flyover ahead of South Africa’s win over the All Blacks has made waves and sparked a debate about how low is too low.

The Springboks dealt New Zealand their first defeat of the year with a 33-26 victory preceded by two passenger planes flying over the bowled Cape Town Stadium.

Even the higher of the two jets was so low the pyrotechnics appeared to brush its underside as it began its ascent.

And as always in 2026, multiple people questioned whether it was real as more clarified ‘not AI’.

Another said: “Love it! No matter what all the critics say, was amazing.”

More celebrated the pilots’ skill, noting they land on runways in a variety of conditions.

Another added: “Everyone saying it’s low hasn’t seen all the angles. Yes, it was low, but it was safe. Multiple other angles that confirms.”

One more said: “Shout out to those amazing pilots & traffic controllers. Real-life heroes.”

The Springboks ensured it was a day to remember after bouncing back from last week’s loss to the All Blacks in Johannesburg.

Skipper Siya Kolisi marked his return from injury with a try as the hosts were much improved on their sloppy showing in the first test and had the ascendancy in the contact area and breakdown in another bruising battle.

Centres Jesse Kriel and Damian de Allende also scored tries to go with 18 points from the boot of wing Cheslin Kolbe.

New Zealand scored four tries through scrumhalf Cam Roigard, fullback Damian McKenzie, wing Leroy Carter and number eight Ardie Savea, but were disrupted at the line-out and have some work to do at the set-piece ahead of the third match in Johannesburg on Saturday.

Kolisi said the Boks last week paid the price for not taking their chances, but said: “This week we did, and we also brought the fire.”

The scrum was the decisive battleground in the first test in Johannesburg and Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus tried to fix that by swapping his entire front rows at the last minute.