An old unrelated photo is falsely shared as Indian Air Force’s Trishul maneuver in Prayagraj on the eve of Maha Shivarathri
Social media is abuzz with a photo allegedly shot during the Indian Air Force’s air show at Prayagraj on the last day of the Maha Kumbh Mela, i.e., 26 February 2025. The airshow was conducted (here, here, and here) to commemorate the conclusion of the 45-day-long event. Users are sharing this photo (here, here, and here) with a claim that reads “…In Prayagraj, Indian Air-Force created Airshow on the eve of Mahashivaratri. Highlight of the Airshow is when 3 Sukhoi created the formation of Lord Shiva’s Trishul in the mid air made it memorable…”. A few others are sharing this photo and calling it the picture of the year (here, here, and here). We will fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: This photo shows the Trishul formation made by the Indian Air Force’s aircrafts on 26 February 2025 at Prayagraj.
Fact: This photo has nothing to do with the 26 February 2025 event held in Prayagraj. It has existed on the internet since 2019, way before the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
To check the veracity of the viral claim, we went through the news reports (here, here, and here) of the air show held on 26 February 2025 at the Maha Kumbh Mela site, Prayagraj. However, we did not find similar visuals as in the viral photo in these news reports.
To learn more about the photo, we performed a reverse image search and found that this photo has existed on the internet for a very long time, at least since March 2019 (here, here, and here)( archive link). This makes it clear that the photo was not taken in Prayagrag on 26 February 2025.
During this search, we learned that the Indian Air Force performs the Trishul formation of the Maneuver during the Republic Day parade events. You can see this in a photo uploaded (archive link) by the PIB showing this formation made by three SU-30 MKIs during the 59th Republic Day Parade in New Delhi in 2008. This does not look similar to the formation seen in the viral photo.
You can see more such videos and photos of the Trishul formation made by the Indian Air Force over the years on the Republic Day parades here, here, here, and here.
To sum up, this viral photo was not captured during the Maha Kumbh Mela conclusion Air Show held in Prayagraj on 26 February 2025