Old flight footage misrepresented as Air India disaster
The video shows passengers using makeshift fans as a man "This is an Air India flight to Patna. Today is the 18th and the flight is at 4 o'clock. We have been on the flight for an hour, without AC. You can see how much we are sweating."
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Screenshot of the false Facebook post taken June 17, 2025
Air India flight 171 crashed into a building used by medical staff shortly after takeoff on June 12, killing at least 279 (archived link).
One sole survivor miraculously survived the fiery crash, which left the tailpiece of the aircraft jutting out of the second floor of a hostel for medical staff from a nearby hospital (archived link).
The inflight voice and data recorders been recovered as investigators work to determine what caused the tragic disaster (archived link).
The video spread alongside similar claims on Facebook in English and Burmese, as well as on TikTok.
However, the video predates the Ahmedabad crash by almost a .
A reverse image search on Google using the video's keyframes found an identical clip published May 18 on the Facebook account of Rishi Mishra (archived link).
Parts of the post's caption reads: "Coming to Patna from Delhi by 4 o'clock flight of Air India. The plane has been parked for an hour but the AC hasn't been operated despite being so much passenger on the plane."
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Screenshot comparison of the false Facebook post (L) and the video posted by Rishi Mishra
, a former legislative member , confirmed with AFP that he filmed the video during a flight from Delhi to Patna on May 18.
"Passengers were kept stranded for more than three hours as the air conditioner was not working inside the plane," he said June 16.
Mihsra added that they "reached the destination around 10:30-11:00 in the evening."
Air India flight 2521 was scheduled to depart from Delhi to Patna at 4 pm on May 18. But after hours of unsolved operational issues, passengers were transferred to a different aircraft (archived links here and here).
video was filmed on an Airbus A320neo aircraft -- which has a smaller passenger cabin than the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that crashed June 12 (archived links here and here).
AFP has previously debunked other misinformation related to the Air India crash here and here.
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