PTI Fact Check: Old video of IAF MiG-21 crash in Rajasthan falsely shared claiming it showed how Taliban shot down Pakistani jet on Durand Line
Monday, Oct 13, 2025 17:10:17
New Delhi, October 13 (Kaushiki Goel / Pratyush Ranjan, PTI Fact Check): In the aftermath of the reported October 11 clashes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, a video showing the burning wreckage of an aircraft has gone viral on social media, with users claiming that it showed how the Taliban shot down a Pakistani jet along the Durand Line.
However, the Press Trust of India’s (PTI) Fact Check Desk investigated the video and found the claim to be false. The footage is not from Pakistan or Afghanistan but from India, and shows a MiG-21 trainer aircraft of the Indian Air Force that crashed near Rajasthan’s Barmer district in July 2022. A three-year-old video is being circulated on social media with a misleading claim.
According to reports, Pakistan’s military said on Sunday (October 12) that 23 of its troops and more than 200 Taliban and affiliated fighters on the Afghan side were killed in the overnight border clashes.
Claim:
A video showing the wreckage and burning of what looked like an aircraft was shared by an X user ‘Nehra Ji’ on October 12, claiming that the Taliban shot down Pakistan’s jet on the Durand Line.
“The Taliban has shot down Pakistan’s jet on the Durand Line. Pakistan’s fighter jet is also being shot down in Afghanistan. And Congress is saying that Pakistan has shot down India’s Rafales,” read the post’s caption.
The post garnered 250.4k views on social media. Here is the link to the post, along with an archive link. Below is a screenshot of the same.
Investigation
The Desk ran the viral video through the InVid tool and extracted multiple keyframes. Using Google Lens on one keyframe, the Desk found several social media accounts sharing the same video with similar claims.
Two such posts can be found here and here, with their archived versions available here and here:
Upon running the extracted keyframes through Reverse Image Search, the Desk came across the extended version of the same video, which was uploaded on the official YouTube page of ‘The Economic Times’ on July 28, 2022. The timeline of the video clarifies that the video is not recent and is unrelated to the Pakistan-Afghanistan tension. Moreover, the accompanying caption with the video stated that A MiG-21 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed near the Barmer district of Rajasthan. Both pilots have lost their lives in the unfortunate incident, officials confirmed.
Here is the link to the post, and below is a screenshot of the same.
Taking a cue from the above findings, the Desk then conducted a customised keyword search on Google to find relevant media reports and came across a report by The Indian Express published on July 29, 2022. The report highlighted that two pilots were killed after an Indian Air Force fighter aircraft crashed in Barmer. Moreover, the cover image of the report was similar to the clip shared recently on social media.
Here is the link to the report, and below is a screenshot of the same.
Taking the investigation ahead, the Desk came across an X post by the Indian Air Force on July 28, 2022. Expressing condolences, the post mentioned that an IAF MiG-21 trainer aircraft was involved in an accident in the western sector during a training sortie. Both pilots sustained fatal injuries.
Here is the link to the post, and below is a screenshot of the same.
Subsequently, the Desk concluded that a three-year-old MiG-21 trainer aircraft crash in the Barmer district of Rajasthan was shared as a recent incident of the Taliban shooting down a Pakistani jet on the Durand Line.
