Dutch military escort misrepresented as US jet protecting Indian airliner
- Published on March 13, 2026 at 06:42
- 2 min read
- By AFP Middle East & North Africa
- Translation and adaptation Devesh MISHRA, AFP India
The war in the Middle East has upended commercial airline operations around the world, with Iranian forces retaliating with missile strikes against several Gulf states hosting US military assets. But unlike videos shared on social media, there have not been any US military planes escorting a passenger flight to India. The flight was actually bringing Dutch athletes home from the Winter Olympics, and the accompanying jet was dispatched by the Netherlands' air force for a hero's welcome.
"American fighter planes arrived to protect Indians until they reached Indian territory," reads a Hindi-language Facebook post with the video shared on March 6, 2026, carrying hashtags that include "Israel Iran Conflict" and "Iran News".
The video shows the wingtip bearing the logo of Dutch airline KLM with a fighter jet flying alongside it before peeling off.
The post also credits the supposed US escort to the "power" of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The conflict that began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has quickly spread across the region, with Tehran unleashing waves of drone and missile strikes against Israel and neighbouring states hosting US military assets (archived link).
The war also severely disrupted air travel in the region as airlines cancelled tens of thousands of flights in the first days of the conflict (archived link).
Some have since partially resumed operations, while governments organised chartered flights to get their citizens home (archived here and here).
While the video with the false claims spread elsewhere on Facebook and Instagram, it is in fact unrelated to the war in the Middle East.
A reverse image search using keyframes reveals the footage was shared days before the Iran war broke out on February 23 by Erik Wink, a physiotherapist working with the Dutch Olympic team (archived here and here).
His caption says the jet was a "home coming escort" for the Dutch Olympics team.
A similar clip was posted on the team's Instagram page on the same day, where the fighter jet pilot can be seen holding a banner welcoming the Olympic team returning from Milan-Cortina (archived link).
The Dutch Air Force and KLM -- the airline that transported the players -- also shared posts on the escort, saying it was to welcome the returning Dutch athletes (archived here and here).
AFP has debunked a wave of misinformation related to the conflict in Iran.
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