Islamabad's lies exposed: Pakistan uses IAF Jaguar crash to spread falsehoods linking it to May 7 military clash

Pakistan launched a vicious misinformation campaign against India following the crash of a Jaguar fighter jet of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in Rajasthan, peddling a false narrative.

 

Some social media posts alleged that India was hiding the death of a fighter pilot who supposedly died during the recent India-Pakistan conflict, by reporting two fatalities in a single-seat Jaguar crash.

 

After the IAF announced that Squadron Leader Lokender and Flight Lieutenant Rishi Raj Singh died in the tragic accident, some Pakistani social media handles claimed that India "quietly added the death of a pilot lost in the May 7 incident with Pakistan" and falsely claimed that the fighter jet involved in the crash was a single-seater.

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Delhi-based DFRAC, a non-profit, independent media organisation focused on fact-checking, noted that another X account by the name ‘Raad_Pak’, which is currently being withheld in India, claimed that “The Indian Air Force says that today’s Jaguar aircraft (JS159) killed its 2 pilots, who were flying a single seat aircraft. It simply means that India just reported the casualty of another pilot who was killed on May 7.”

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However, DFRAC, citing various media reports, clarified that the jet which crashed was in fact a SEPECAT Jaguar trainer aircraft—a two-seat version of the Jaguar, deployed by the Indian Air Force for advanced pilot training and mission preparation.

 

Jaguar has as many as 23 variants, including Jaguar A, B or T2, T2A. Jaguar B is a two-seat trainer model, which allows an instructor and trainee to fly together.

 

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