No, Chopper Carrying IAF Commander Pankaj Mohan Sinha Did Not Crash in Mathura

The IAF's PRO and local authorities in Mathura have denied all statements made in the viral claim.

The image is old and dates back to December 2021. The viral claim is false.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

A photograph showing a helicopter on the ground is being shared on social media, claiming that it shows an aircraft which was carrying the Indian Air Force's (IAF) Air Marshal Pankaj Mohan Sinha, Commander of Western Air Command, and had crashed in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.

• Some users have also claimed that the Air Marshal's current condition was unknown and that internet services have been suspended in Mathura because of the crash.

An archive of this post can be seen here.

(Archives of similar claims on social media can be seen here, here, and here.)

Is it true?: We found no evidence to corroborate the claim.

• The photograph in the viral claim dates back to November 2021 and shows an IAF chopper crash in Arunachal Pradesh.

• Responding to The Quint's query over email, the IAF's Public Relations Officer denied the occurrence of this event.

How did we find out?: We ran a relevant keyword search to look for news reports about IAF Air Marshal Pankaj Mohan Sinha's alleged helicopter crash.

• The search returned no relevant results.

• The most recent reports of an IAF chopper crash date back to 4 December, when two IAF pilots were killed during a training exercise after their Pilatus aircraft crashed in Telangana.

• We then went through the Indian Air Force's verified X account, which had no mention of such an incident.

Responding to The Quint's query over email, IAF PRO Wing Commander Ashish Moghe wrote "This office hereby denies the occurrence of any such accident or incident involving a Mi-17 V5 helicopter of the IAF or Air Mshl PM Sinha (AOC-in-C, WAC) (sic)."

What about the image?: We ran a reverse image search on the photo being shared with the claim. This led us to a report by The Quint, published on 18 November 2021, which carried the same photo.

The image shows a helicopter which crash landed in Arunachal Pradesh in 2021.

• It mentioned that the photo showed one of the Indian Air Force's Mi-17 helicopters, which had crash-landed at the Rochham helipad in Arunachal Pradesh.

• Our report added that all five people – two pilots and three crew members – were safe.

• The same image was carried by several news organisations, such as The Economic Times and NDTV in reports on the same incident.

Internet suspended in Mathura?: We did not find any news reports which confirmed that internet services had been suspended in Mathura.

The latest post on Mathura Police's verified X account was shared when this report was being written, indicating the internet was still accessible.

Mathura Police's verified account shared posts while we were examining the claim.

We contacted local authorities in Mathura, who denied claims about internet suspension or a helicopter crash.

Conclusion: Posts claiming that a helicopter carrying Air Marshal Pankaj Mohan Sinha, Commander of Western Air Command crashed in Mathura are false.

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