Old footage of Russian aircraft shot midair shared as Pakistani fighter jet taken down by India

by Kinjal

While the armed conflict between India and Pakistan was at its peak following Operation Sindoor, a video clip of a fighter jet being shot down in the sky was widely shared on social media with the claim that India had shot down two Pakistani fighter jets flying around Srinagar-Budgam-Baramulla in Kashmir.

The parody X account ‘@RichKettle07’ posted the video with the same claim on May 10. It has received 10 Lakh views so far. (Archived version of the post)

Another X user named Premanand also posted the video with the same claim. (Archived link)

Many X accounts shared the clip with the same claim. (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4) At the same time, the video was viral on Facebook as well. 

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Fact Check

Using a simple reverse image search using key frames from the video, we found visuals from the video in a report by The Irish Sun dated September 26, 2022. According to the report, these visuals are of an American-made Stinger missile shooting down a Russian fighter jet mid-air. The article states that a Su-30 fighter jet flying around Kharkiv in Ukraine was shot down.

Express.co.uk also published a report on the incident. This article contains an embedded version of the viral video and reports that a Russian fighter jet was shot down by the United States’ ‘Stringer’ missile.

The former Defence Minister of Ukraine had also informed the public about a Russian Su-30 jet being shot down in Kharkiv on September 25, 2022.

To sum up, a three-year-old video is being shared with the false claim that two Pakistani jets were shot down around Srinagar-Budgam-Baramulla.

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About the Author

Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.