Friday, Jul 24, 2026 The claims desk. Receipts included. POWERED BY LENZ ↗
IsThis

GENERAL

The Claim

At least 10% of pilots believe that the Earth is flat.

Verified by Lenz ·

The Short Version

The evidence does not support the claim that at least 10% of pilots believe the Earth is flat. The commonly cited 10% figure refers to the general public, not pilots, and no reliable pilot-specific survey was provided. Sources discussing pilots indicate that their training and operational practice are based on Earth’s sphericity, making flat-Earth belief among pilots a fringe view, not a documented 10%+ share.

Caveats

  • A general-population statistic was improperly applied to a specialized profession with very different knowledge and training.
  • No credible pilot-specific poll, survey, or dataset was provided to support the numeric threshold of 10%.
  • Several supporting items are unsourced social-media or forum posts, which are not reliable evidence for prevalence claims.

The Receipts

  1. Conspiracy vs. Science: A Survey of U.S. Public Beliefs

    University of New Hampshire / Carsey School of Public Policy

  2. Do pilots think the earth is flat?

    Institute for Research & Education (iere.org)

  3. False claim 'straight and level' flying proves Earth flat

    USA Today

  4. The flat-Earth conspiracy is spreading around the globe. Does it hide a darker core?

    CNN

  5. Yes, Flat-Earthers Really Do Exist

    Scientific American

  6. Most flat earthers consider themselves very religious

    YouGov

  7. Engineers deflate flat-earth funnyman's theory

    AAP FactCheck

  8. Pilots Are Taught to Work With the Fact Earth is a Sphere

    flatearth.ws

  9. Why do some people believe the Earth is flat?

    Pursuit (University of Melbourne)

  10. Proficient Pilot: The Earth is not flat

    AOPA

+ 17 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

EarthFlat EarthPilots

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