Indian media is claiming that Pakistan’s F-16 fighter has been shot down, likely in Rajasthan. There are unverified claims that the Pakistani Air Force’s (PAF) pilot may have been apprehended.
Earlier, a video showed Pakistan acknowledging the loss of two JF-17 fighters. It was widely shared on social media by prominent Indian accounts. It turned out to be a work of deep- fake!
Additionally, after the Indian military launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ on terror camps in Pakistan, Islamabad claimed that it had downed India’s most advanced Rafale fighter jet, not one but three.
So far, there is no concrete evidence to substantiate Islamabad’s claims.
Fact Check: Some Indian users claim Pakistan Army admitted they lost “two JF-17 jets” with this video.
This video is AI-generated, fabricated.
Pakistan’s Army has no such statement. pic.twitter.com/FLcwhqyBOs
— Clash Report (@clashreport) May 8, 2025
Multiple sources tell EurAsian Times that India may have shot down an aircraft, most probably an F-16, but we await the official confirmation or denial.
Earlier in 2019, the Indian Air Force (IAF) claimed that its Soviet-era MiG-21 Bison shot down a Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) F-16 fighter jet with a Russian-origin Vympel R-73 missile. Pakistan quickly dismissed the claims.
India-Pakistan 2019 Air Clash
On February 27, 2019, the PAF carried out Operation Swift Retort in response to the Indian air raid, as part of which low-flying Pakistani jets thundered over the Rajouri and Poonch districts along the LoC, prompting the Indian side to scramble its fighters to intercept the Pakistani aircraft.
“The sole purpose of this action was to demonstrate our right, will, and capability for self-defense. We do not wish to escalate, but we’re fully prepared if forced into that paradigm,” Pakistan’s Foreign Office said following the operation.
The skirmish between the two air forces resulted in an IAF MiG-21 Bison being shot down with its pilot, Wg Cdr Abhinandan Varthaman, being apprehended by the Pakistan Army. Before going down, the Indian side claimed that Abhinandan had shot down a Pakistani F-16 aircraft.
IAF backed its claims by presenting radar data from its Phalcon AWACS and showcasing a fragment from a supposed AIM-120C-5 missile to prove the involvement of an F-16 in the confrontation.
Pakistan rejected India’s claims, describing them as “baseless.” “The international experts and US officials have already confirmed that no Pakistani F-16 was shot down on the day after taking stock of Pakistani F-16 aircraft,” said Pakistan’s Foreign Office in a statement.
Nevertheless, the entire episode spurred an intense debate within the defense and aviation community worldwide, which went on for days after the incident.
F-16 ‘Shoot Down’ F-16
During the Soviet-Afghan War, Pakistan’s F-16 jets were engaged in a series of skirmishes with various combat aircraft of the Soviet-backed Afghan air force.
In one such battle that took place on April 29, 1987, two PAF F-16s of the No. 14 squadron engaged a formation of four Russian MiG-23s that were carrying out a bombing operation in Afghanistan.
The two F-16s came in below the climbing MiG-23s when one of them was hit, and the Afghan government was quick to claim that it had succeeded for the first time in shooting down a Pakistani F-16 jet fighter.
However, it turned out that an AIM-9P Sidewinder missile fired by the F-16 flown by then Wg Cdr Amjad Javed had hit the right wing of the other F-16, bringing it down. The F-16 that suffered the hit was flown by Flight Lieutenant Shahid Sikandar, who managed to eject safely.
Investigations revealed that the sensor, which is supposed to identify if the target locked on is a friend or a foe, had failed to identify the F-16 correctly. Experts at the Pentagon found it hard to believe how an F-16 could shoot its wingman when the aircraft is equipped with one of the world’s best IFF (identify friend or foe) systems.
The system emits an electronic beam at the target and identifies the return beam as a friend or a foe. Furthermore, even the missile has an air intercept interrogation system that the firing pilot is supposed to switch on when the missile locks onto a target to reconfirm the aircraft’s identity. So, either the pilot failed to do that, or the system malfunctioned.
A month after the incident, during the Congressional hearings on the AWACS question, Pentagon experts called Pakistani pilots “some of the best in the world, next only to the Israelis”. They found it even harder to accept the failure of such crucial components of the F-16 system.
Pakistan’s version of the incident was that Wg Cdr Amjad Javed fired his AIM-9P missile at the fleeing MiGs; however, in the heat of the battle, his wingman, who was also chasing the MiGs, came in the way.
Since the F-16 has a much more powerful engine than any of the MiGs, the heat-seeking AIM-9P lost track and went straight for the F-16’s exhaust.
That said, the downing of the F-16 in a friendly fire was very embarrassing for Pakistan, according to one US administration official who said at the time that the F-16 had “seized the imagination of the Pakistani people” to the extent that there are “F-16 cafes, F-16 T-shirts and F-16 bumper stickers. You can even see F-16s on the flaps of buses in Islamabad.”
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