Pakistan Shot Down Its Own Jets? Here’s The Truth Behind Viral Claim

Claim

Pakistan shot down its own fighter jets after the Chinese radar deceived them.

An archived version of the same post can be seen here.

Fact 

We found no credible reports on any such incident on mainstream media, prompting us to split the video into several keyframes, following which we subjected the keyframes to reverse image search.

We were led to a Reddit post titled “Army Training Jet Crashes Near Vehari, Pilots Eject Safely,” under the chat channel ‘r/pakistan’ on April 15, 2025. The post carried a video that shared similar frames with the viral video and showed a similar visual of a downed aircraft on fire. 

“Pak Army training jet crashed near Ratta Tibba, Vehari, due to a technical issue. Luckily, both pilots ejected safely and no one was injured. The plane fell near an oil depot, but no major damage occurred,” the caption of the post read. 

Using this as a clue, we conducted a keyword search on Google which threw up several reports regarding the incident, such as this, this and this.

One such report by Samaa TV carried the same footage as seen in the viral video, further confirming that the visuals are from a crash of an army training jet in Pakistan and not related to the recent military level escalation in India-Pak standoff. 

“The aircraft was on a routine training mission when it developed a technical malfunction mid-air. According to initial reports, the aircraft lost control and eventually crashed into agricultural fields near Luddan Road, damaging crops but causing no loss of civilian life,” the report read. 

Thus we find that a video of an army training jet crash in Pakistan is being falsely shared as a video of a Pakistani jet shot down by its own army.

Also Read: Old, Unrelated Videos Viral As Pakistani Strikes On Military Base In Amritsar

Sources
Report by Samaa TV, dated April 15, 2025
Report by Pakistan Today, dated April 16, 2025
Report by Dawn, dated April 16, 2025
Report by Daily Pakistan, dated April 15, 2025