2023 Chennai Airport Flood Video Misattributed to August 2025 Mumbai Rains
Amid heavy rainfall in Mumbai in the third week of August 2025, a video (here, here & here) was widely shared on social media claiming to show the flooded airside of Mumbai airport, stating that over 250 flights were affected. Let’s verify the claim.
Claim: Viral video shows Mumbai airport flooded by August 2025 rains, causing over 250 flight disruptions.
Fact: While heavy rains did disrupt hundreds of flights in Mumbai on 19 August 2025, the viral video is not related to this disruption. The video is from December 2023 and shows flooding at Chennai airport caused by Cyclone Michaung. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
An internet search regarding flight disruptions due to the rain led to media reports (here, here & here). According to initial media reports, heavy rainfall disrupted over 250 flights at Mumbai’s main airport on 19 August 2025. However, data from the flight-tracking portal Flightradar24 shows an overall disruption of over 680 arrivals and departures that day.
Furthermore, Mumbai Airport and airlines like IndiGo, SpiceJet, etc., issued travel advisories announcing delays due to heavy rain. At the time of publishing this article, the Mumbai airport stated it was fully operational but advised passengers to contact their airlines for flight updates.
Regarding the viral video, a reverse image search of its keyframes led to earlier uploads from 04 December 2023. Various media outlets (here, here & here) attributed the video to Chennai Airport, where Cyclone Michaung had flooded the airside and temporarily disrupted operations.
Furthermore, the Aircraft Stand Identification Sign visible in the viral video features coordinates that are traceable to Chennai Airport.
To sum it up, while the flight disruptions in Mumbai were real, the viral video is not from this event; it’s old footage from the 2023 Chennai floods.