On Aug. 15, 2019, the website ThinAirToday published an article positing that a man in Saudi Arabia accidentally bought two Airbus A350s for his son's birthday:
Saudi man accidentally buys 2 Airbus A350’s for sons birthday
A man in Saudi Arabia accidentally bought 2 Airbus A350-1000’s while searching for scale models of that type. The man, an investor in the energy sector, was searching for a birthday gift for his son who is a big fan of aviation.
This item was not a factual recounting of real-life events. The article originated with a website that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature. ThinAirToday carries a disclaimer at the bottom of its website that plainly states: "All content is satirical."
Despite the disclaimer, a number of social media users shared this bit of fiction as if it were a genuine news story:
This satirical article was also picked up by at least one genuine news outlet, TimesNowNews.com. That outlet has updated its article to explain the story originated on a satire site.