More than 400 IndiGo flights have been cancelled in last six days as the operational disruptions with the airline continues. Lighthouse Journalism found a claim being widely shared on social media linking it to ongoing IndiGo airline crisis.
The picture that features people sitting on a runway also shows an IndiGo plane. The users are sharing this picture as recent. However, during the investigation we found the picture to be old from 2018.
Claim:
X user Manish RJ shared the viral picture with false claim.
Other user are also sharing the same picture with similar claim.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by running a reverse image search on the viral image.
We found the image being used in an article on economictimes.com article.
The article was uploaded on 2018. The headline said: IndiGo passengers stranded on tarmac for 7 hours for non-availability of crew
The report said: An IndiGo Delhi-Bengaluru flight was stationed at the Delhi airport tarmac for more than 7 hours until early Monday morning due to non-availability of crew, with passengers kept waiting in the shuttle, and then inside the plane or sitting on the tarmac.
A clarification on the image was also shared official page of Maharashtra DGIR.
The caption said: The claim that the viral photo of passengers sitting on the runway near Indigo Airlines plane is false. This pic is not of the current chaos but it is old.
This photo is from Delhi airport in May 2018, such a time had come on passengers due to a severe storm and staff were not available.
We found the several other news reports featuring the same image.
Conclusion: The viral image featuring several passengers sitting on the runway is an old picture from 2018. The picture is being shared as recent, falsely linking it to recent IndiGo crisis. The viral claim is false.
