In their hurry to break news, several TV channels on Monday ran stories about a fighter plane crashing near Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh. Only, no such crash took place.
The channels even beamed images of wreckage, causing some nervous moments in the Air Force.
Even as official spokespersons denied that any fighter jet had crashed, the news spread like wildfire. It later turned out that some channels were showing file footage of a MiG-27 crash without verifying the news with official authorities.
Finally, defence ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar set the record straight with this tweet: “There has been no air crash of any IAF fighter jet today. A MiG-27 with the frame number TU 645 had crashed in Uttarlai on 27 Jan 2015.”
Some reports even suggested that a TU 645 chopper had crashed.