India-Pak Standoff: Old Video Falsely Shared As IAF Fighter Jet Crash During Recent Drill

Video shows an IAF fighter jet crashing while taking off from a highway during a recent drill.

Such posts can be seen here and here.

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A keyword search for “IAF”, “drill” and “highway” on Google led us to multiple reports, such as this and this, stating that the Indian Air Force conducted a “land and go” exercise on the 3.5-km stretch of the Ganga Expressway in Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh on Friday (May 2, 2025). 

The drill featured aircraft such as the Rafale, Sukhoi-30 MKI, Jaguar, MiG-29, Mirage-2000, C-130J Super Hercules, AN-32 transport aircraft and MI-17 V5 helicopters performing both take-off and landing exercises to check daytime and nighttime operations. 

The drill was originally scheduled for two days, but IAF officials completed the entire exercise in one night, reported PTI.  However, none of these reports mention anything on the alleged crash of a fighter jet as widely claimed.

We then looked up the keyframes of the viral video on Google Lens which led us to a Facebook post by @GarudPeGarv, dated October 22, 2017. The post featured a longer version of the same video clip which is now viral, stating, “Sad Video of Indian Air Force’s Mig-27 Crashing on Takeoff.”

Further, a YouTube post by @Garag22, dated January 16, 2013, also carried a longer version of the viral video, confirming that it does not show any mishap during the recent IAF drill at Ganga Expressway. 

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We were not able to independently ascertain other details about the video. However, it is clear that it dates back to at least 2013, and has been falsely shared to show the IAF fighter jet crashing during a recent exercise. 

Sources
Facebook post by @GarudPeGarv, Dated October 22, 2017
YouTube Video By @Garag22, Dated January 16, 2013