This is not a real photo of a Russian jet flying under a bridge -- it is a collage

The image was published here on Weibo on October 21, 2020 by a military blogger with more than 400,000 followers.

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Screenshot taken on October 29, 2020, of the misleading Weibo post

It appears to show a plane flying out from under a bridge.

The post’s caption, written in simplified Chinese language, translates to English as: “On June 4, 1965, in the urban area of Novosibirsk in the Soviet Union, people on the shore saw a silver MiG-17 fighter flying towards the river at an incredibly low altitude. The pilot lowered the flight altitude and pointed the plane’s nose at the 30-meter high bridge arch, then crossed the bridge at a speed of 700 km/h. Then, the fighter did a sharp rise which caused a high waterspout of several metres on the calm river.

“This happened because Captain Privalov, a Soviet pilot with excellent aircraft skills, was reluctant to take part in tedious training at the time. He wanted to carry out high-level flight training, and so the scene above took place.”

The same image was also shared here on Weibo, here on Twitter, and in articles here and here alongside a similar claim.

The claim is misleading.

A keyword search found a similar photo published here on the Facebook account of Russia's Museum of Novosibirsk, on March 20, 2016.

The Russian-language post reads: “The only jet aircraft flight in the world to go under a bridge; helmed by Novosibirsk pilot Valentin Privalov on June 4, 1965. Photo collage by Evgeny Socikhovsky, an employee of the Museum of Novosibirsk.”

Below is a screenshot comparison of the image in the misleading Weibo post (L) and the photo on the museum’s Facebook page (R):

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Screenshot comparison of the image in the misleading Weibo post (L) and the photo on the museum’s Facebook page (R)

According to this February 25, 2014 report by Russian military news website Defending Russia, pilot Valentin Privalov did successfully maneuver an MiG-17 fighter jet under a bridge in Novosibirsk on June 4, 1965.

The report also contains the same image as seen on the Museum of Novosibirsk’s Facebook post, and it too describes the image as a “photo collage”.

The claim was also debunked by fact-checking website Snopes here in July 2017.