A photo of Turkish military personnel arriving at the scene of the air crash in 2016 surfaced online, and the post falsely claimed it showed Pakistani fighter pilots arrested in India. This statement emanates from South Asian competitors fighting for four days in May, but no such incidents were officially reported.
The post X of May 9, 2025 said: “The first photo of Pakistani fighter pilot captured by India.
“He was arrested in Rashi near Jaisalmer.
About 70 people were killed in four days of fierce fighting between India's nuclear-weapon neighbors and Pakistan in May, triggered by a fatal attack by gunmen in India-managed Kashmir. New Delhi blames Islamabad for the attacks denied by Pakistan (archive).
The May 10 ceasefire ended strong Tit-Tat drones, missiles, air combat and artillery exchanges, with both sides agreeing to withdraw their troops back to peacetime by the end of this month.
Screenshot of fake posts taken on May 21, 2025
Similar claims appeared on X and Instagram, while Indian news media articles had the same image.
However, no official report said that as of May 22, Jaisalmer had been captured by Pakistani military pilots.
A reverse image search on Google found an image released by photo agency Getty Images on December 12, 2016, thanks to AFP (archive link).
The photo captioned in AFP's archives reads: “Turkish military personnel arrived near the Turkish F16 war plane, which crashed in Diyarbakir on December 12, 2016” (link to archive).
The country's military said the fighter crashed near the airport in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, but the pilot also ejected safely. “The cause of the crash is not immediately known, but the government said it has conducted an investigation.”
Screenshots Comparing 2016 fake posts (left) and AFP photos (right)
The incident also reported Türkiye's state-run Anadolu agency, which said the jet crashed during a training course (archive link).
Pakistani media organization GEO fact checks debunked similar claims about the photos (archive link).
The facts of the misinformation caused by the recent conflict between France, France and India can be found here.
