After Iran’s missile strike destroyed two crucial bases of the terrorist group Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan, a surge of propaganda accounts running from Pakistan started peddling a claim. Viral on social media, a set of posts are claiming about an Indian Air Force helicopter crash near Mathura. These posts assert that the helicopter was carrying Air Marshal Pankaj Mohan Sinha, the Commander of Western Air Command of the IAF.
What claim they are sharing?
Pakistani accounts named Pakistan Telegraph and Intel Consortium have shared a photo of a crashed helicopter in an unidentified location. Sharing the picture they claimed, “Air Marshal Pankaj Mohan Sinha, Commander of Western Air Command in the #Indian Air Force, was on board an Mi-17V5 that crashed near Mathura.
His condition remains unknown, and internet services in the area have been suspended.”
Following these accounts, multiple other Pak handles started to share similar claims
Fact Check
The Dfrac team conducted a thorough examination of the claim. Upon conducting a reverse search of the viral image, we traced it back to a November 2021 incident. Subsequently in this event, an MI-17 helicopter belonging to the Indian Air Force crashed while attempting to land at Rochham Helipad in Arunachal Pradesh.
According to an article by Indian Today from November 18, 2021, the helicopter was carrying out a sortie in the area when the incident took place in eastern Arunachal Pradesh. An Indian Air Force Mi-17 helicopter crash-landed in eastern Arunachal Pradesh with two pilots and three crew members onboard. All of them are safe. However, one engineer suffered a minor injury.
In addition to this, we found the same viral image in an article by ET from November 18, 2021.
Conclusion
Thus, the circulating viral image is old, and the claim regarding an IAF chopper crash carrying Air Marshal Pankaj Mohan Sinha, the Commander of the Western Air Command, is Fake.
DFRAC Analysis: Fake claim peddled by Pak accounts
