A video filmed at Hong Kong International Airport is falsely shared as a live plane crash video of the Ahmedabad Air India plane
On 12 June 2025, Air India Flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London Gatwick, crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad. The aircraft lost altitude within minutes and went down in the Meghani Nagar area near the airport, erupting in flames (here, here). It crashed into the hostel building of B.J. Medical College and Civil Hospital, which was reportedly housing medical students at the time. Over 240 people were on board, including nationals of India, the UK, Portugal, and Canada (here). Investigation into the causes of the incident is ongoing, led by the DGCA, AAIB, and Air India.
In this context, a video (here, here, and here) allegedly showing the live footage of this plane crash is doing the rounds on social media. In this video, we can see the wing side window view of a plane taking off from a runway of an airport. We will fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: Live visuals from inside the Ahmedabad–London Air India plane that crash-landed on 12 June 2025
Fact: This video was filmed at the Hong Kong International Airport, not the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, Ahmedabad. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To verify this claim, we performed a reverse image search on several keyframes from the video. The search did not yield any reports or posts from official sources linking this video to the 12 June 2025 Ahmedabad Air India plane crash. It only led to a few social media posts (here and here)that described the visuals as ‘terrifying moments during takeoff,’ but these posts did not mention the flight number or other identifying details.
However, during this search, we found that the location where the viral video was filmed is the Hong Kong International Airport (Chek Lap Kok Airport). We found a few stock images (here, here, and here) of this airport where the shape and design of the roof matched with the roof of the airport seen in the viral video.
We verified this on Google Maps and found similarities between the location where the viral video was filmed and the Hong Kong International Airport.
Additionally, the roads and the water body seen in the viral video are present around the Hong Kong International Airport. There is no such water body seen around the Ahmedabad International Airport, except for the Sabarmati River, which is not as close to the airport as seen in the viral video. The Hong Kong International Airport is actually located on the Island of Chek Lap Kok (here, here, and here).
Additionally, we found similar videos (here, here, here, and here) of planes taking off from the Hong Kong International Airport on YouTube. Most of these videos described the airlines as Cathay Pacific, which is the flagship carrier of Hong Kong. We can see the planes of the Cathay Pacific airlines in the viral video, too.
Through a quick web search, we found that Cathay Pacific is providing flight services from Ahmedabad, but since we already observed that the location where the viral video was filmed is Hong Kong International Airport, it negates the possibility of the viral video being filmed in Ahmedabad.
Furthermore, in the viral video, we can see a runway number that reads ‘25L-07R’ painted on the runway. We observed that the same runway number in the runway of the Hong Kong International Airport is present in the satellite imagery present in Google Maps.
Although we couldn’t verify details like who filmed the video or the exact flight it was taken on, the available evidence clearly shows that the viral video was shot at Hong Kong International Airport, not at Ahmedabad International Airport. This confirms that the video has no connection to the plane that tragically crashed on 12 June 2025
To sum up, a video filmed at Hong Kong International Airport is falsely shared as a live plane crash video of the Ahmedabad Air India plane crash.