Claim
Amid the ongoing Indigo crisis, a photograph allegedly showing passengers sitting on an airport tarmac with the carrier’s aircrafts in the background is going viral on social media, claiming to depict the current situation that has seen more than 2,000 flights cancelled, stranding thousands of passengers.
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Fact
A reverse image search on the viral photograph led us to a May 15, 2018 report by the Times of India, which carried the same image. The report detailed that a thunderstorm disrupted flight operations at IGI airport and that passengers on Indigo’s Delhi-to-Bengaluru flight 6E2977, scheduled to take off at 10:40AM, were made to wait for nearly seven hours due to crew unavailability. They were made to wait inside the shuttle, inside the aircraft, and on the tarmac.
According to the report, IndiGo officials said the problem was primarily due to weather conditions, during which time a number of crew members had to be reshuffled as they had completed their duty time.
Another report by the Economic Times, dated May 14, 2018, also carried the same photograph and confirmed that the Indigo Bengaluru-bound flight remained stationed at the Delhi airport tarmac for over seven hours.
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Hence, the viral photograph is not related to the recent wave of flight cancellations by Indigo. It dates back to at least 2018.
Sources
Report By Times of India, Dated May 15, 2018
Report By Economic Times, Dated May 14, 2018
