A claim about plane crash of the Indian Airforce is going viral on social media. Dainik Bhaskar shared the image of the crash with the caption,”Mi 171 helicopter of Indian Air Force crashed: in Nigeria, 26 soldiers killed, 8 injured”(translated into English)
Another media house, INHnews 24X7 has also shared the image with viral claim followed by other social media users.
Fact Check:
DFRAC’s team reverse searched the image to check the veracity of the claim. From the investigation it was found that the plane crash did happen in Nigeria but the plane was from Nigerian Air force. The crash was reported by media house, The Nigerian Times, on 15 August 2023.
It reported,”A Nigerian Air Force MI-171 Helicopter on a casualty evacuation mission crashed today, August 14, 2023, at about 1.1.00 pm Chukuba Village in Niger State.”
Journalist and author Ajeet Bharti also tweeted the post and claimed it to be fake. He stated,”, @DainikBhaskar Telling one lie after another. This is a Nigerian chopper, not an Indian one. It was them who had published most of the false news on the workers of Tamil Nadu and Bihar. They have spread many fake news earlier also. Taking cognizance of @MIB_India, strict action should be taken against them.
It was them who spread the false news of non-payment of salaries to ISRO engineers on the day of Chandrayaan’s launch.”
Looking closely into the image, we also found the image of Nigerian Airforce symbol which matched with symbol on the wing of the crashed plane.
We also cross checked for the official statement from Indian Airforce about the crash but none was reported.
Conclusion:
From the fact check it is evident that the claim made by Dainik Bhaskar, INHnews, and other social media users about Indian Airforce plane crash is misleading. The plane which crashed belonged to Nigerian Airforce.
