Original article (in Bosnian) was published on 18/6/2025; Author: Mladen Lakić
A photo of a female military pilot is circulating on social media with the claim that it is Israeli pilot Sarah Ahronot, who was captured by Iran in June 2025. The photo actually shows a Chilean lieutenant who became the country’s first female military pilot in 2021.
In an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, on June 13, 2025, Israel launched a series of military attacks on Iran, targeting nuclear, military and other facilities in the country. Iran responded later the same day by launching a large number of ballistic missiles at Israel. The conflict continued in the following days, with both international and local media closely monitoring the development of the situation in detail (1, 2).
In addition to increased media attention, the escalation also fueled the spread of disinformation. On June 15, 2025, a photo was posted on Facebook showing a woman in uniform standing next to a plane, accompanied by a caption claiming she is pilot Sarah Ahronot, captured by Iranian forces after ejecting from a fighter jet.
Iran has captured a female Zionist pilot who jumped from a fighter jet that was shot down yesterday. Pilot Sarah Ahronot captured in Iran.
A Pilot from Chile
The Facebook post in question does not provide further details about the aircraft allegedly shot down on June 14, 2025, the day before the post was published. However, on June 14, on June 14, a report was released claiming that Iranian forces had downed an Israeli F-35. The source of the news was the Iranian army. Israel, on the other hand, denied these allegations (1).
A reverse image search of the pilot photo, claimed to be Sarah Ahronot, using the TinEye tool reveals that the image has been available online for several years. It was originally published on December 30, 2021 in an article on Aeroflap, a website which specializes in aviation news. According to the article, the woman in the photo is Daniela Figueroa, a lieutenant in the Chilean army and the first female military pilot in the country. Her last name – Figueroa – is also visible on her uniform.
There are no credible media reports that any member of the Israeli military named Sarah Ahronot was captured in Iran.
The claim that the photo shows the pilot Sarah Ahronot has also been analyzed by our partner portal Faktograf. This analysis points out that the insignia on the Chilean pilot’s uniform do not resemble those of the Israeli Air Force.
By the time this analysis was written, the analyzed Facebook post had a little less than 100 reactions, a few shares and 17 comments. Some of the comments contain messages that call for physical violence.
Since some of the posts have been deleted and it is not possible to determine with certainty which one was posted first, we rate the analyzed Facebook post, which features the photo of the pilot with a caption claiming she is Sarah Ahronot captured by Iranian forces, as spreading fake news. The photo dates from 2021 and shows Chilean pilot Daniela Figueroa.
(Raskrinkavanje.ba)
