Fact Check Reveals Misleading Viral Videos and Images After Air India 171 Crash in Ahmedabad

Old Aviation Footage Resurfaces After Air India 171 Crash

The news broke fast and hard on June 12, 2025: Air India Flight 171 had crashed into a bustling residential area in Ahmedabad. The numbers were grim—at least 265 lives lost in a matter of minutes. As the world tried to process what happened, social media feeds erupted with shaky footage and harrowing photos. But a closer look reveals a different story for many of these so-called eyewitness accounts.

Scrolling through Twitter and Instagram, you probably came across a video showing thick smoke filling a passenger cabin, travelers coughing and clutching handkerchiefs. Captions slapped onto it claimed these were the final chilling moments on board Air India Flight 171. The truth? It never happened on that plane. Fact-checkers at AFP, PTI, and BoomLive followed the video trail, and reverse image searches connected it with a completely unrelated incident—a Ryanair flight between Bucharest and London Stansted, all the way back in January 2020.

That particular Ryanair scare started with de-icing fluid sucked into the air conditioning, spreading smoke throughout the cabin. The story ended with all 169 passengers and four crew safely evacuated after an emergency landing. No one died, and it definitely wasn’t in India. So why was this video trending with the Air India hashtag?

Other Crashes Mistakenly Linked to Ahmedabad Disaster

The Ryanair mix-up isn’t the only blunder. Another video circulated widely, showing a terrifying crash landing with no survivors. Supposedly from Ahmedabad, it actually came from Nepal—a January 2023 disaster involving Yeti Airlines where 72 lost their lives. There’s no connection to Air India or the Ahmedabad tragedy, but that didn’t stop the footage from going viral, especially in the emotional chaos right after the news broke.

It doesn’t end there. An image of a jet engulfed in flames appeared everywhere with claims it was the doomed Air India aircraft. But dig just a little and you’ll find it’s actually a photo from South Korea. On December 29, 2024, a Jeju Air flight tragically crashed, killing 179 people. Again, despite the horrors both real and depicted, these events have nothing to do with India’s latest aviation tragedy.

Fact-checkers didn’t have an easy ride with all these mix-ups. But using archival news, image searches, and flight records, they methodically exposed the real sources. If you’ve seen any of these videos, it’s not just you. The images got millions of views, shared by even well-meaning users eager to make sense of the Ahmedabad crash. Sadly, they only muddy the truth.

It’s another reminder—especially when disasters happen—that not everything on social media is what it says it is. The actual details in Ahmedabad are tragic enough and deserve a clear-eyed look, not confusion from recycled footage of past accidents. The next time viral content claims to show a breaking disaster, it pays to look closer and think twice about hitting 'share.'