Old Images Going Viral As The Recent IAF Jaguar Aircraft Crash In Churu, Rajasthan.

A Jaguar trainer aircraft crashed into a field near Churu in Rajasthan on 9 July 2025 that killed two Indian Air Force pilots. Against this backdrop, an image went viral on social media. The main image shows a burnt aircraft while the insert image is a collage of two images. One image in the collage shows a pilot lying on the ground and the other image shows a burnt debris. Sharing the image, users claimed that this shows the recent IAF Jaguar aircraft crash in Churu, Rajasthan.

Facebook Link | Archived Link.

However, as we investigated, we came to know that the claim was misleading. The images are old and unrelated to the recent IAF Jaguar aircraft crash in Churu. Here’s the fact check.

Fact Check 

We started our investigation by conducting a reverse image search.

A reverse image search of the main image, which shows a burnt aircraft, led us to a report published in the Hindustan Times on 28 January 2019 which contained an image similar to the viral one. According to the report, the image shows an IAF Jaguar fighter plane that crashed in a field in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar on 28 January 2019. The pilot Rohit Katoch (36) ejected safely after steering his burning aircraft a few kilometres away from a rural residential area in Hatimpur locality.

Archived Link

We found another report containing a similar photo published on 28 January 2019. The report read, “A Jaguar aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed on Monday in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar district, with the pilot ejecting safely, police said. The military aircraft crashed soon after taking off on a routine mission from the Gorakhpur Air Force Station.

District Magistrate Anil Kumar Singh said the incident took place around noon when the pilot sensed some problem in the plane and turned it towards a safe destination before jumping to safety.

Police said the plane crashed in Hatempur area of the district between Hata and Kasya towns.

Other reports containing similar images can be seen here and here.

This makes it clear that the photo is old.

Moving forward, we conducted a reverse image search of the insert image. 

Reverse image search of the image which shows a pilot lying on the ground led us to a report published in The Print on 7 March 2025 which contained an image similar to the viral one. According to the report, the image shows the pilot of a IAF Jaguar aircraft that crashed in Panchkula district, Haryana on 7 March 2025.

A found a video report uploaded on the official YouTube channel of The Tribune on 7 March 2025. We found the pilot’s clip in this video. The description of the video read, “IAF’s Jaguar fighter jet crashes near Raipur Rani in Haryana’s Panchkula; pilot ejects safely

A Jaguar aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed in a hilly forest area near Raipur Rani in Panchkula district of Haryana on Friday.

The mishap occurred during a routine training sortie after the jet encountered a “system malfunction”, an official said.

The pilot manoeuvered the aircraft to ensure no damage to life or property on the ground before ejecting safely, the IAF said, adding an inquiry had been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident.”

A reverse image of the second image in the collage led us to a report published in India Today on 7 March 2025 that contained an image similar to the image in the collage. According to the report, the image shows wrecked pieces of the IAF Jaguar aircraft that crashed near Haryana’s Panchkula on 7 March 2025. 

Another report can be seen here.

This makes it clear that the images are old and unrelated to the recent IAF Jaguar aircraft crash in Churu, Rajasthan.

Conclusion 

From our investigation, we can say that the claim is misleading. The images are not from the recent IAF Jaguar Aircraft Crash in Churu, Rajasthan. The images are from two different old incidents. The image of the burnt aircraft is from the IAF Jaguar Aircraft Crash in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar in January 2019, while the insert image is from the IAF Jaguar Aircraft Crash in Haryana’s Panchkula on 7 March 2025.