Video game footage of helicopters being struck shared with claims IAF downing Pakistan helicopters

A video showing two choppers being struck down has been shared on social media with claims that the Indian Air Force downed two fighter helicopters in Bhuj, killing four Pakistani air force personnel.

The video emerged as the conflict between India and Pakistan was on the brink. Pakistan retaliated with shelling and drones shortly after India carried out air strikes on nine terror bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on the intervening night of May 6 and 7, 2025. Since these strikes, named Operation Sindoor to honour the 26 victims of the April 22 terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, the two nations continued with combat. Meanwhile, scores of unverified visuals have emerged on social media showing damage to infrastructure and claims of casualties on both sides.

X user Aman Sah (@amnofc) shared the video and wrote, “Four Pakistani Air Force personnel were killed in the Bhuj area during an operation of the Indian Air Force, in which two Pakistani fighter helicopters were also destroyed.” (Archive)

This video had garnered more than 1.7 million views at the time this article was written.

X user Deepak Sharma (@SonOfBharat7), who has shared misinformation in the past, shared the video with a similar claim. (Archive) Another X user, @thevoicenm, also posted it. (Archive)

Numerous X users have also been sharing such videos with similar claims. (Archive)

Fact Check

On taking a closer look, Alt News noticed that the combat scenes did not seem and guessed they might be from a warfare or combat game. We performed a reverse image search of a few frames taken from the video and landed on the same video uploaded on March 29, 2022, on SON STUDIO, a gaming channel on YouTube. The description of the video, titled “2 Military Ka-52 shot down by Air Defense System Milsim ARMA3 E11”, says that it is a dramatised, fictional gaming footage.

We found many such videos on this channel that are footage of gaming or simulations. The channel’s ‘About’ section states that it makes military gaming simulation content for ‘Arma 3 (or EFBS)’.

To sum up, the video being circulated with claims that four Pakistan soldiers were killed and two of their choppers struck down in Bhuj is a gaming simulation video. The footage is unrelated to the India-Pakistan conflict and was available online for three years before Operation Sindoor was launched. The claims are baseless.

Also Read: ‘Operation Sindoor’: Video game clip shared with claim of shooting down Pakistani jet