India and Pakistan have been up in arms against each other after the Indian Air Force bombed the biggest Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp in Balakot, Pakistan in the early hours of February 26. On Wednesday, February 27, the Indian security forces shot down a Pakistan F16 when it was entering the Indian air space.
Pakistan, in retaliation, shot down a MiG-21 which entered the Pakistan air space. One pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, was caught by the Pakistani troops after falling in their region and has been taken as a prisoner. Pakistan claims that a second pilot also was captured. Major General Asif Ghafoor of the Pakistan Army said that one pilot fell in Azad J&K while another fell in what they call India occupied Kashmir (IoK).
The Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Wednesday that in the combat, India lost one MiG-21 jet and one pilot is missing.
BrassTacks exclusive...
— Zaid Hamid (@ZaidZamanHamid) February 27, 2019
The captured Indian pilot...being treated well... pic.twitter.com/xE6iCYrpop
Second Pilot captured by Pakistan
Dr Shahid Masood, the President of a Pakistani media company, Airwaves Media Group, tweeted sometime back that the second IAF pilot of the fighter jet which was allegedly shot down by the Pakistan army has been found.
However, the video posted by him was not of the second IAF pilot flying in Pakistan airspace, but of an IAF pilot who was involved in a flight crash in Bengaluru last week while rehearsing for the Aero India 2019 air show.
In his tweet, which also had the video, he said that the 2nd pilot was captured alive.
Truth
The video is of an injured pilot involved in a plane crash on February 19 while flying the Surya Kiran flights as part of rehearsals for the air show.
Verification
By searching "Engineering student comforts pilot" on Youtube, The Quint's video of an aeronautical engineer in Bengaluru taking care of and holding the hand of an injured pilot is the first result. This video was uploaded on February 20, 2019, while Pakistan claims that the pilot was captured on February 27.
Image by PTV News
A Pakistani news channel, PTV News which on February 27, tweeted photos of a scene of a plane crash with the caption, in Urdu, saying that Pakistan air forces shot down the Indian plane which entered into the Pakistan airspace.
PTV News took down the image shortly after it was posted.
Truth
The image is not of the India fighter plane shot down since it dates back to 2015 and is not the plane which was shot down by the Pakistani security forces on Wednesday morning.
Verification
Using Google reverse search, the results show that the image dates back to 2015 in a report by The Hindu about a plane crash in Odisha. Hence it is not possible that the image of the plane crash is from the morning of February 27, Wednesday.
A fact check done by India Today journalist Shiv Aroor said that the Pakistan media and social media were showing images of plane crashes from 2016 and 2018 in Jodhpur and Odisha, respectively. Since the image of the plane was also found in a 2015 article, it can be said ascertained that it is not of the crash that Pakistan is claiming it to be.
