Recently, internet users have been sharing a claim that a Taliban owned MiG-29 fighter jet was crashed while taking its first flight. Users are also pitching in that it was Indian engineers who helped the Taliban to restore this fighter aircraft. The claim extends that after its unsuccessful flight in Kandahar, the pilot engineers went off to Nepal. An image of a crashed MiG-29 was also used to support the claim.
One user, @PakUrdu_, posted it on X with a caption on it that says, “An Afghan MiG-29 restored with the help of Indian engineers crashes during its first flight in Kandahar, reports say the team has ‘flown’ to Nepal now!”
Fact-Check
The viral claim was nowhere to be found on any media reports or official statements from Afghanistan and Indian officials. Indian engineers or any other technical staff from India are primarily electrical or civil engineers working on infrastructure and development projects such as power substations, dams, and roads. The question of any team of Indian engineers going to restore a fighter aircraft in Afghanistan is fake and fabricated. Furthermore, the current Taliban government lacks an Air Force. The current air assets include the former Afghan Air Force, such as A-29 Super Tucanos and C-208 utility aircraft. These were captured during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the Taliban is not qualified to use and maintain them. There is no evidence that the Taliban has or operates MiG-29s. And the image used here does not have any resemblance to the claim made. It is an image of a crashed MiG-29 that was taken in the aftermath of Operation Desert Storm (between the allied forces led by the U.S. and Iraq) in 1991.
Conclusion
Therefore, the claim of a Taliban jet getting destroyed in its first flight is fake. The Taliban has no MiG-29 fighter aircraft with them, and no Indian engineers went to Afghanistan to restore any fighter aircraft for Afghanistan.
