On 12 June 2025, Air India Flight AI 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad while en route to London Gatwick. The aircraft lost altitude within minutes and crashed in the Meghani Nagar area near the airport, erupting in flames (here, here). Over 240 people were on board, including nationals from India, the UK, Portugal, and Canada (here). Rescue and investigation efforts are ongoing, led by DGCA, AAIB, and Air India.
In this context, several photos and videos are being circulated on social media with the claim that they show the Ahmedabad plane crash. Let’s verify the truth behind these visuals in this article.
Claim: Visuals show the 12 June 2025 crash of an Air India flight that took off from Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Fact: None of the visuals are related to the 12 June 2025 Air India crash in Ahmedabad. The photos and videos are from past incidents, including the 2020 Kozhikode crash, the 2010 Mangalore crash, the 2023 Yeti Airlines crash in Nepal, and the 2024 Jeju Air crash in South Korea. These visuals predate the Ahmedabad crash and have no connection to it. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Photo 1
This photo is being shared with the claim that it shows the Ahmedabad plane crash that occurred on 12 June 2025.
A Google Lens search of the viral photo led us to multiple media reports (here, here, and here) from August 2020 featuring the same photo, confirming that the photo predates the 12 June 2025 Ahmedabad plane crash and is unrelated to it. According to these reports, on 07 August 2020, Air India Express Flight IX-1344 from Dubai crashed while landing at Kozhikode airport in heavy rain. The Boeing 737-800 overshot the tabletop runway, broke into two, and slid down a slope, killing 21 people, including both pilots, and injuring over 100. An investigation by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) found pilot error as the primary cause, with poor weather and runway conditions also contributing.
Photo 2
In our investigation, we found (here, here, and here) that this photo is also from the 07 August 2020 crash of Air India Express Flight IX-1344, which occurred while the flight was landing at Kozhikode airport in heavy rain.
Photo 3
A Google Lens search of the viral photo led us to an India TV article dated 22 May 2010 featuring the same photo, confirming that the photo predates the 12 June 2025 Ahmedabad plane crash and is unrelated to it. According to these reports, on 22 May 2010, Air India Express Flight 812 from Dubai overshot the tabletop runway at Mangalore airport, crashed off a cliff, and caught fire, killing 158 of 166 onboard, with eight survivors. Investigators found the captain was heavily asleep during the flight, which likely impaired his landing judgment.
We found the same image on the stock website Alamy, showing charred bodies and Indian firefighters at the site of the Air India crash in Mangalore, Karnataka, on 22 May 2010. The plane, arriving from Dubai, overshot the hilltop runway in rain and caught fire, with around 160 feared dead.
Photo 4
A Google Lens search of the viral photo led us to multiple media reports (here, here, and here) from December 2024 featuring the same photo, confirming that the photo predates the 12 June 2025 Ahmedabad plane crash and is unrelated to it. According to these reports, on 29 December 2024, Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 from Bangkok to Muan International Airport in South Korea crashed during an emergency landing after a bird strike and landing gear failure. The plane overshot the runway and hit a concrete embankment near the runway’s end, causing a deadly explosion that killed 179 people, with only two survivors. Experts criticised the runway design and embankment’s rigid structure, which violated safety standards by not breaking on impact. Following the crash, South Korea’s transport ministry announced plans to replace such concrete barriers at airports nationwide and review safety regulations to prevent similar accidents.
Video 1
This video is being shared with claims (here, here) that it shows the final moments of the passengers before the Ahmedabad plane crash on 12 June 2025.
A reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video led us to multiple reports (here, here, and here) from January 2023 featuring the same footage, confirming that the video predates the 12 June 2025 Ahmedabad plane crash and is unrelated to it. According to reports, the video is from the 15 January 2023 crash of Yeti Airlines Flight 691, which was travelling from Kathmandu to Pokhara in Nepal. The aircraft, an ATR 72-500, crashed into a gorge near the newly opened Pokhara International Airport just before landing, killing all 72 people on board. One of the passengers, Sonu Jaiswal, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, India, was live-streaming on Facebook moments before the crash. His video captured a calm cabin atmosphere, followed by sudden chaos, screams, and flames. The crash occurred in clear weather, and no distress signal was sent by the pilots. It remains Nepal’s deadliest aviation disaster in over 30 years and raised serious concerns about flight safety in mountainous regions.
Additionally, we found an X post by PIB Fact Check stating that an old video is being circulated on social media, falsely linked to the Ahmedabad plane crash. The video shows a plane crash that occurred in Nepal in January 2023. The post urges people to rely only on official sources for accurate information.
To sum up, old and unrelated plane crash visuals are being shared as those of the 12 June 2025 Ahmedabad Air India crash.
