Claim: A video shows passengers exiting a grounded aircraft in Pakistan as the country had “run out of jet fuel” due to “growing economic instability”.
Fact: The video, in fact, depicts a scene from a 2018 incident when an aeroplane skidded off the runway in Panjgur, Balochistan.
On 12 January 2026, X (formerly Twitter) account @AFGDefense posted (archive) a video showing passengers exiting a plane in what appears to be barren, rocky land. The aircraft’s livery features Pakistan’s name in Urdu and the registration number “AP-BKY.”
The text accompanying the video is as follows:
“🇵🇰📉Due to growing economic instability in Pakistan, the country has now run out of jet fuel & grounded its aircraft.😂”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check did not find any credible reports of Pakistan grounding its aircraft due to lack of jet fuel in 2025 or 2026 so far.
We reverse-searched keyframes from the video and found it on the Facebook page ‘HAWK MEDIA HOUSE’, which posted it on 10 November 2018. The accompanying caption mentioned that a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft from Karachi “skid off the runway during landing at Punjgur airport” after one of its tyres “burst”.
The search also led us to this article from the same day on a blog called Pakistan Aviation, which wrote that a “PIA aircraft skidded off runway at Panjgur airport”, as well as a video report by Neo News on YouTube.
Using these details, we conducted another search and found a report by Dawn, published on 11 November 2018, which explained that “no one was injured in the incident”. The image in it matches the visuals in the claim.
“According to officials of Panjgur airport, the aircraft skidded off the runway during landing after its two tyres got deflated due to rough surface. The pilot, however, managed to control the aircraft and halted it over land near the runway,” the publication wrote, adding that a PIA spokesperson said the airline’s chief executive officer (CEO) at the time, Air Marshal Arshad Malik, ordered an immediate inquiry.
When we looked up the plane’s registration number “AP-BKY” on the All Pakistan Aircraft Registration Marks’ (APARM) website, we found that its type was “ATR 72-500” and it was eventually returned to the leasing company on 12 December 2020.
On 8 March 2024, the Ministry of Defence published a report probing the incident by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board (AAIB), which said it occurred due to an “Involuntary Runway Excursion (RE).” The document added that all passengers of the flight — PIA 517 — “were safely evacuated”.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that Pakistan did not ground its aircraft because the country had “run out of jet fuel”. The claim is false and the accompanying video in the post is unrelated.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim posted by Afghan users here, here, here, here, and here.
It also appeared on Facebook here and here.
The false claim was also amplified by Indian users as has often happened in the past.
Conclusion: The video does not show an aircraft grounded due to Pakistan running out of jet fuel. In fact, it depicts a scene from a 2018 incident when an aeroplane skidded off the runway in Panjgur, Balochistan.
Background image in cover photo: PakistanIntAirlines
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