Picture of burning fighter jet was not taken during current Ukraine conflict
Picture of burning fighter jet was not taken during current Ukraine conflict
(Reuters) Social media users have incorrectly claimed that an image of a burning plane shows a Russian fighter jet shot down during the current war in Ukraine.
Shared on Facebook ( here ) and ( here ), the picture appears to show the outline of a burning jet crashing through the sky.
It has been captioned: “Rare Russian MiG-31BM fighter jet shot down in Ukraine destroyed along with crew – media”.
In the comments section, users have indicated that they believe the image was taken during the current conflict in Ukraine.
“Praying for the war in Ukraine to end and the invaders vanquished and gone!!!,” said one user.
While Reuters could not verify the source of the image, it does predate the current conflict by several years, and has appeared on websites linking it to the Syrian war since 2016 ( here , here ).
Reuters published other fact-checks addressing photos of falling planes miscaptioned as stemming from Ukraine ( here ) ( here ).
VERDICT
False. The picture was not shot during the current conflict in Ukraine and has been circulating online since at least 2016.
