Authors
Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.
An image of two flight attendants standing at the entrance of an Air India flight with their hands folded is going viral on social media, claiming that one of them is President Ram Nath Kovind’s daughter Swati Kovind.
The image has been shared on Facebook by user V Salim Kumar along with the caption ‘Her name is Swati. She was a flight attendant in ‘Air India’, the leading airline in the country.
She’s been working for several years as a flight attendant on ‘Air India’ Boeing 777 & 787 aircrafts in distant lands like Australia, Europe and America. But – the full name of this 5.4′ tall Swati is Ms. Swati Kovind! Yes, you’ve guessed it right – she’s the Daughter of President Ramnath Kovind!..etc.’
Newschecker found similar claims with similar captions on Facebook and Twitter.
Fact Check/ Verification
Upon conducting a Google reverse image search on the viral image to ascertain its authenticity, Newschecker found that the image has been published by Getty Images on their website. According to the caption ‘Air India air hostesses wear their new uniform atop the Air India flight, during the delivery of the Boeing 737-800 Commercial Jetliner for Air India in New Delhi, 06 November 2006.’
Upon performing a keyword search, Newschecker found that after Ram Nath Kovind became President, his daughter Swati Kovind was deployed in Air India’s integration team in 2017 for security reasons. .
According to an article published by the Times of India on July 21, 2017, Swati, the daughter of President Ram Nath Kovind, does not use her last name. According to another article published by the organisation on November 11, 2017, Swati, who worked as an air hostess in Boeing 777 and 787 planes, was deployed in Air India’s integration team for security reasons.
Upon further investigation, Newschecker found several articles by Navbharat Times , NDTV and Firstpost among others reporting that Swati Kovind had been assigned ground duties for security reasons and moved from in-flight duties after her father, Ram Nath Kovind became the President.
Conclusion
Our investigation has revealed that the viral image is not of Swati Kovind, daughter of President Ramnath Kovind. Along with this, our investigation also reveals that Swati Kovind, who was working as an air hostess in 2017, was deployed in the integration team of Air India for security reasons.
Result: – Misleading / Partly False
Our Sources
This article was originally done in Hindi. You can read it here.
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Authors
Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.
