Authors
A video showing a turban-clad man playing the dhol instrument in an airplane went viral online claiming to show the celebrations on “Tata Air India’s first flight from India to Canada.” Newschecker found the video to be from 2018 when direct flights between Amritsar and Birmingham were resumed.
Tata group which had originally founded the Tata airlines in 1932 won the bid and reacquired 100% stakes in the national carrier Air India in early October. The airlines returned to the founders 68 years after the government took over the airlines in 1953.
Following the acquisition, several Facebook and Twitter users shared the viral video cheering the Tata Group on its first flight.
Factcheck/Verification
To check if the viral video is from the “Tata group’s first flight” after the reacquisition, Newchecker ran a keyword search for “bhangra flight” on Twitter and found a Tweet by the Outlook magazine dated February 23, 2018.
Comparing the frames from the viral video with the video posted by Outlook magazine, we found the videos to be indistinguishable from each other which indicates that the viral video was not shot recently.
Further on searching for keywords “bhangra in flight” on Google, we found articles by India Today and NDTV dated February 2018.
While India Today has carried the viral video in its report, NDTV has carried an image of the man seen in the viral video with the caption “Passengers on board an Air India flight from Birmingham to Amritsar were in for a special treat”
Both the portals have reported that a special dhol performance was organized on the direct Air India flight from Birmingham to Amritsar which had resumed after a gap of eight years in 2018.
Taking a clue from the news reports, Newschecker ran an advanced Twitter search and found several Tweets dated February 2018 that have carried the viral video.
Newschecker has also debunked the claim in Hindi. You can read our fact-check here.
Conclusion
An old video showing celebrations when the direct flights between Birmingham to Amritsar was resumed is falsely being shared as celebrations on Tata Air India’s first flight.
Result: Misleading
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