Old photo of plane wreck falsely linked to Indian Air Force crash in July

Published on July 17, 2025 at 04:14
2 min read
By Akshita KUMARI, AFP India

A decade-old photo of a jet wreckage has resurfaced in posts falsely claiming it depicts an Indian Air Force Jaguar training aircraft that crashed during a routine operation in the northwestern Rajasthan state on July 9. The June 3, 2015 AFP photo of the old disaster was taken in the eastern Odisha state.

"Air Force's Jaguar fighter jet crashes in Churu, two pilots martyred," reads a Hindi-language Facebook post shared on July 9, 2025.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) confirmed a jet crashed in the Churu district of western India's Rajasthan state during a routine training mission on July 9, killing two pilots onboard (archived link).

The post shares a breaking news graphic with a photo of a plane wreck in a field surrounded by people. Hindi-language text repeats the claim.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on July 14, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

The same image circulated across Facebook, Threads and X on the day of the crash.

However, reverse image searches found the photo is of a different crash in 2015.

The photo was published by BBC in a February 27, 2019 report about misinformation circulating during rising tensions between India and Pakistan (archived link).

It is credited to AFP and captioned, "Wreckage of an Indian Air Force jet. Photo: June 2015."

Keyword searches found the same photo in AFP's archives, published on June 3, 2015 (archived link).

The caption reads, in part, "Onlookers look at an Indian Air Force advanced jet trainer aircraft (A 3492) which crashed in a paddy field at Kudurasahi in Mayurbhanj district, some 365 kms north of Bhubaneswar on June 3, 2015".

Screenshot comparison of the image shared in false posts (L) and the photo from AFP archives

Mayurbhanj disrict in the eastern Odisha state is more than 1,340 kilometres (835 miles) from Churu (archived link).

The same photo was used in reports by local outlets The Hindu and The Telegraph about the 2015 crash, which said the accident occurred due to a technical glitch and both pilots were able to eject in time (archived links here and here).

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