Claim: An image shows the wreckage of a Pakistan Army helicopter that crashed near Khost in the Harnai district of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province.
Fact: The photo has no relation to the 26 September crash but is from a separate incident in 2021.
On 26 September 2022, the Facebook page ‘Quetta Time’ posted an image of a wrecked Pakistan Army helicopter — which was carrying six military officials, including two majors — when it crashed near Khost in the Harnai district of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province.
The picture was accompanied by a caption, which translated to English reads:
“Very sad news
Reports of another helicopter accident in Balochistan are coming in. The helicopter crashed in the Harnai area.
6 people including two majors and 3 SSG commandos were on board.”
“All six personnel on board, including two pilots, have embraced shahadat,” Dawn reported, quoting the Pakistan Army’s media wing, Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR). The incident occurred late at night on 25 September.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check investigated the same image on 1 August 2022 when it was associated with a helicopter out on flood relief operations that crashed in Balochistan’s Lasbela.
Dawn first published the image in a 6 December 2021 report titled, “Two army pilots martyred as helicopter crashes in Siachen: ISPR.” It was sourced to the ISPR.
Anchorperson Wajahat Kazmi shared a larger, uncropped version of the same image on 6 December 2021; it was also posted to the History of PIA forum on the same date.
Soch Fact Check concludes that the image is not recent nor related to the Pakistan Army helicopter crash on 26 September in Harnai, Balochistan.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the image shared on various Facebook pages, including here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
It was also shared here on Twitter.
Conclusion: The photo has no relation to the 26 September helicopter crash but is from a separate incident in 2021.
[…] fire burns nearby during a clash with Pakistan Army soldiers in the Balochistan province following the crash of a military helicopter in Harnai, near Khost, in September […]