Does a viral video show "Pakistan F-16 jets" shot down by India in April 2025? No, that's not true: Social media posts recycled old footage from 2024. When it was initially uploaded online, the captions discussed a Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jet crash, not a military operation using American made F-16 jets.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X where it was published on April 29, 2025. It opened:
Indian airforce shoots down pakistan f16 jets.. Diwali begins now 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 #IndiaPakistanWar #Sialkot #Pakistan
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories)
The claim started circulating on social media as the tensions between India and Pakistan escalated in April 2025 to the near-war state (archived here).
However, the footage included in the post on X predated that. It has been online since June 4, 2024 (archived here). The caption discussed a plane crash, not a military action. And it identified the jet as a Russian-made Sukhoi, not an American-made F-16.
On the same day, a longer version of the same video (archived here) was published on X by Lokmat Times (archived here), a multi-lingual Indian newspaper. That post's caption read:
A Sukhoi fighter jet crashed in a field in the Shirajgaon area of Niphad taluka, Nashik district. Fortunately, both pilots on board managed to bail out safely using parachutes. #Sukhoi #Shirajgaon #Nashik #FighterJetCrashed #FighterJet #LokmatTimes
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