In late June and early July 2025, a claim (archived) circulated online that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth "quietly" paid for the funerals of 90 people who died in the Air India Flight 171 crash on June 12.
The claim was especially popular (archived) on Facebook (archived), where it circulated since at least June 21 (archived). Versions of the claim bore a near-identical text to the example above which read:
SHOCKING: Pete Hegseth Quietly Pays for Funerals of 90 Indian Plane Crash Victims—A Heart-Wrenching Act of Kindness at Midnight! In a move that has left the world stunned, Fox News host Pete Hegseth anonymously covered the funeral costs for 90 victims of a devastating plane crash in southern India. The tragedy, which claimed dozens of lives, saw Hegseth act swiftly—transferring funds at 3:17 AM with no press release or statement, just a simple message: "Make sure their families don't suffer alone." His quiet, selfless act has sent shockwaves across the globe, sparking a conversation about humanity beyond politics. Find out why this act of kindness is redefining Pete Hegseth's legacy below!
The claim also circulated on X (archived) and Threads (archived). Snopes readers wrote in asking if the claim was true.
However, we found no evidence that the claim was true. We found no credible reports of Hegseth's alleged "heart-wrenching act of kindness," though that was unsurprising, given the payment was allegedly made in secret (archived, archived, archived, archived).
We did, however, find that the claim circulated with links to a slew of blog-style "news" sites, at least one of which anti-malware company Gridinsoft classed as a phishing site. The articles all used identical text, which an online detector found highly likely to be generated by artificial intelligence (AI). We could not independently verify any of the claimed quotes in these articles, including allegedly from Hegseth himself. Given the above, we rate this claim false.
We reached out to the Department of Defense, which Hegseth leads, and Peter Neenan, an aviation lawyer working with families of the Air India crash victims, to ask if they could confirm the claim and await replies to our queries.
Posts spreading the claim on Facebook included links to ad-filled blogs reporting the alleged news story. Three of these — from June 21, July 1 and July 7 — used identical text and quotes despite appearing to be three different websites. Zerogpt.com, an online tool that detects AI in text, found the first two paragraphs of the article 100% likely to have been generated by AI.
The articles said Hegseth worked with a "local Indian charity" to make the payments and included an alleged quote from Hegseth himself that we could not find reported (archived) in reputable news sources.
The article also claimed social media users in the U.S. and India discussed Hegseth's alleged payment under the hashtags #HegsethHeart, #TrυeAmericaп, aпd #NamastePete (archived, archived, archived). We did not find evidence of these discussions on X and Facebook, two popular social media platforms in the U.S. and India that use hashtags (archived, archived).
The reports cited "Pushpa Devi," allegedly the wife of a crash victim, who thanked Hegseth for his gesture in "local media." We did not find reports in Indian outlets featuring this quote in English, Gujarati or Hindi (archived, archived, archived).
Though there was no evidence Hegseth made the alleged funeral payment, Air India said on June 22, 2025, 10 days after the crash, that it intended to pay compensation of £21,500 (around $29,000) to families of the crash victims. The airline said in the same statement it would support families with funeral costs.
Air India's parent company, Tata Group, said in a separate statement it would pay the equivalent of £85,000 (around $115,000) per family.
By July 4, Air India had paid interim funds to 47 families, according to the airline.