A video showing fire and billowing smoke on a hillside is being shared on social media, where users have claimed that it shows a US Air Force (USAF) F-35 fighter jet which was shot down by the Pakistan Air Force in US' Albuquerque, New Mexico.
At the time of writing this report, this post by X user '@defencealerts' had gathered over six lakh views and more than 8,000 likes.
(Archived versions of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here and here.)
Is it true?: No, there are no credible reports about such an incident happening.
Moreover, the video in the claim dates back to May 2024 and shows a USAF F-35 which crashed in New Mexico due to an accident.
How did we find out the truth?: We ran a reverse image search on the video using Google Lens, which led us to a NDTV report dated 29 May 2024.
This report carried a screenshot of the video and said that a F-35 fighter jet had crashed in Albuquerque, New Mexico while en route to the Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California after refuelling at the Kirtland Air Force Base.
It added that the pilot, though conscious, was seriously injured after ejecting from the jet and had been hospitalised after a military accident.
The search also returned a result showing a video report by The Telegraph, which carried the same visuals as the clip in the claim.
Stock visuals website Getty Images also shared footage of the military crash on 29 May.
The caption noted that defense company Lockheed Martin, which manufactures the jet, "confirmed that an F-35B fighter jet went down after refueling at Kirtland Air Force Base."
The Kirtland Air Force Base also issued a statement about the crash on 11 June 2024, saying that "the cause of the crash is still under investigation."
None of the credible sources which shared news of the crash mentioned the jet being shot down by Pakistani forces.
Conclusion: An old video of a military accident is being shared to falsely claim that it shows a USAF F-35 jet which was shot down by the Pakistan Air Force in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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