A Chinese paraglider’s story of being accidentally propelled more than 8,000 metres high by an updraft has been thrown into doubt after it emerged that parts of a video of the flight appear to have been AI-generated.

Peng Yujiang, who has been banned from the activity for six months, said he began from an elevation of about 3,000 metres in the Qilian mountain range in northern China, where he intended to test some secondhand equipment he bought without making a proper flight, according to an investigative report by the Gansu Provincial Aviation Sports Association.

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The bureau report was based on an interview with Peng, the association said. Subsequent findings that some video was AI-generated have called into question his story.

Peng told the investigators that about 20 minutes into his practice he was caught in a strong updraft, which sent him soaring more than 5,000 metres higher, in line with flight paths and nearly the height of Mount Everest.

In a video filmed on the ground, Peng said: “My hands were frozen outside. I kept trying to talk on the radio.”

Related: A new start after 60: I dreamt of paragliding for 30 years. When I took to the skies at 80 I felt completely free

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Video purported to be from Peng’s mounted camera went viral, but has since been challenged over its veracity. At least some parts of it are believed to have been AI generated. NBC News said the first five seconds of the footage provided by China’s state broadcaster CCTV, and distributed by Reuters, had been determined to be AI-generated.

Authorities praised Peng’s survival, conceding it was an accident. A “normal person cannot be exposed at 8,000 metres without oxygen [so] this is not something that can be done voluntarily” said a sports bureau official, according to Sixth Tone.

But Peng, who has about five years’ experience paragliding, never intended to leave ground level and so had not registered any flight plans, meaning his ordeal was “not subject to relevant approvals”, the report said. In response, he was banned from flying for six months.

The bureau report, based on an interview with Peng, said he was in the air for more than an hour, and had stayed in radio contact with his friend, Gu Zhimin, who was still on the ground.

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The report said he had attempted to descend but his efforts were “ineffective”, and as he flew higher he became confused and briefly lost consciousness.

Peng said he was eventually able to land about 30km from the launch site, where he was met by Gu and another friend.

Gu later posted a composite video to Douyin, China’s domestic version of TikTok, where it soon went viral.

The video drew the ire of authorities.

“Gu Zhimin posted a flight video without permission, which had a bad impact,” the report said. “He was grounded for six months and asked to write a report to deeply reflect on the negative impact of his behaviour.”

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The bureau said any record broken by Peng’s flight would not be officially counted because his flight was not registered.

If Peng did fly to the reported height, there is precedent for survival, including the world record of 9,946m set by German paraglider Ewa Wiśnierska in 2007, when she was caught in a similar updraft while paragliding in Australia. Wiśnierska was unconscious for about 40 minutes, only learning how high she had flown after safely landing and checking her flight data.

Additional research by Lillian Yang.

• This article was amended on 31 May 2025 after it emerged that some of the video of the flight appears to have been AI generated.