This is not the retrofitted Boeing 777-300 ER (‘Air India One’) which will be used to fly VVIPs including PM Modi - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 8, 2020
Recently, one of the two aircrafts which will be used to fly VVIPs landed in India after getting retrofitted in the USA. A photo is being shared on social media with a claim that it shows the interior of the aircraft made for PM Modi at the cost of 8600 crore rupees. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Interior photo of the PM Modi’s aircraft which was built at the cost of 8600 crore rupees.
Fact: The posted photo is old and shows a ‘Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner’, not the retrofitted Boeing 777-300 ER (‘Air India One (AI-160)’) which will be used for VVIP operations in India. While the exact cost is not known, the government has allocated a total of around 4,632 crore rupees in the previous three budgets. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When the image in the photo was run through Google Reverse Image Search, the same interior photo was found to be uploaded by multiple websites. In ‘The Times’ article published in 2017, it can be read that the photo shows a ‘Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner’, not the retrofitted Boeing 777-300 ER (‘Air India One (AI-160)’) which will be used for VVIP operations in India. The same photo can be found here, here, and here.
The interior photos of the retrofitted Boeing 777-300 ER can be seen in the ‘News18’ photo gallery.
While the exact cost of the two aircrafts is not known (media reports mentioned that it is estimated to be around Rs 8,400 crore), it was found that the Central government in the Budgets (2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21) has allocated a total of around 4,632 crores for the ‘Purchase of two new aircraft for Special Extra Section Flight operations’.
To sum it up, the posted picture does not show the retrofitted Boeing 777-300 ER (‘Air India One’) which will be used to fly PM Modi and other VVIPs. The aircraft in the photo is a ‘Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner’.