It is widely accepted claim by impartial sources...The SU was hit and returned to base and there is another theory that it was crashed inside IOK while trying to reach base. Read the following from "somewhere"
"Hasan promptly announced ‘Fox Three,’ the brevity code for an active radar-guided missile contact at the target. Though hard evidence by way of aircraft wreckage or aircrew casualties has not been available so far, ground and airborne radar traces indicated that the blip vanished from the screens after a couple of tight orbits by the aircraft. Whether the Su-30mki had met a violent end, or the damaged aircraft spiralled down to make an emergency landing at nearby Srinagar, remains moot. Debris of the AIM-120C missile, as mentioned, however was later picked up and displayed on Indian television in a ludicrous tri-services press conference as the IAF brass unsportingly complained that the PAF had used its F-16s against them, in what was actually a telling response to their own aggression. Indian Media however did blunder into initially admitting this loss (A Pakistan Air Force F16 has shot down an Sukhoi 30mki of the IAF) and quickly hushed up as evidently the world witnessed how stifled and unprofessional Indian media had been thru the whole time, actively allowing itself as Modi's falsehood machine after a humiliating defeat."
In the aerial encounter of February 27, there was a high probability of several more IAF aircraft being shot down, given PAF’s definite edge in BVR air combat. The conflict was, thus, clearly fraught with the likelihood of tit-for-tat intensification to a point of no return. That the two nuclear powers were on the brink of a terrible catastrophe is something which needs serious reflection, especially for the initiator of the conflict – in this case Mr Modi, who seemed to have coolly run an election campaign on the wings of the IAF which was clearly mauled by a smaller Pakistan Air Force, again.
Tailpiece: The Indian Prime Minister’s whimper (quoted in India Today, 3 March 2019), “if we had the Rafale, things would have been different,” Clearly, the Indian Prime Minister miscalculated Pakistan’s resolve, ability and willingness to pay back promptly, in kind.
Arrogance and self awareness never mix.
"Pakistan has one of the best, most combat ready air forces of the world".
General Chuck Horner
Commander USAF during Desert Storm
1991