Old plane crash video falsely linked to India-Pakistan conflict
"Pakistanis rescuing a pilot from an Indian aircraft shot down by a Pakistani military attack," reads part of a Sinhala-language Facebook post shared May 7, 2025.
The post includes a ys in Urdu: "Take this, Your father Pakistan has destroyed seven Indian planes. A video of shooting down of one plane has surfaced".
The video shows a plane engulfed in flames and people tending to someone dressed in military . An AFP reporter confirmed the people in the video are speaking in with a rural accent.
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Screenshot of a Sinhala-language Facebook post captured May 20, 2025
The fighting was touched off by an attack last month in the Indian-administered side of disputed Kashmir that killed 26 tourists, mostly Hindu men, which New Delhi blamed on Islamabad. Pakistan denies any involvement in the attack.
Pakistan claimed it downed five Indian warplanes, including three French-made Rafale fighter jets, although New Delhi has not confirmed any losses (archived link).
The clashes, the worst between the neighbours in decades, were brought to a halt by a ceasefire announced May 10.
Similar claims spread elsewhere on Facebook alongside the same video.
A reverse image search and subsequent keyword searches on Google found a Facebook reel published 7 on the verified Facebook account of Indian media outlet Aaj Tak (archived link).
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Screenshot comparison of the false Facebook post (L) and the video posted by Aaj Tak
The footage bears the red logo of Aaj Tak, visible in the top right-hand part of the clip shared on .
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Screenshot of a Facebook post taken May 20, 2025
Business Today published the same video on February 7 (archived link).
Other Indian media organisations, including The Times of India and NDTV, reported that a twin-seater Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft from the country's air force crashed in the state of Madhya on February 6 (archived links here and here).
A police officer from Karera -- a municipality in the Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh -- also confirmed the plane crash to Bhaskar English and said two pilots were on board the jet when it crashed. The Indian news outlet quoted one of the pilots (archived link).
AFP has debunked other misinformation stemming from the conflict between India and Pakistan here.
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