Fact Check: Air India plane crash - last moments inside the plane? No, this is an old, unrelated video

Hyderabad: A video showing a smoke-filled airplane cabin, with passengers heard screaming in panic, is going viral on social media with claims linking it to the recent Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad.

On June 12, moments after take-off, Air India flight AI-171 with over 242 passengers onboard crashed near Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, on the BJ Medical College UG hostel mess in Ahmedabad.

In this context, the viral video is being shared with the claim that it shows the last moments before the crash.

The video was shared on X with the caption, “The last moment before the Air India crash” (Archive)

Another X post also shared the video with the same caption. (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video is not related to the Ahmedabad plane crash. It is an old video showing an Irish airline Ryanair flight filling up with smoke.

Using reverse image search, we found the viral video uploaded to the social media platform TikTok in 2024 with the caption,"#ryanair Flight Fills With Smoke As Plane Makes Emergency Landing #ryanairemergency #crashlanding #aviation"

The text on the video reads, "Terrified Passengers As Smoke Fills Ryanair Flight (sic)"'

A similar video, with the same background audio, was uploaded on X by a user in March 2023. According to the post, the video was from an incident inside a Ryanair flight that took place in January 2020.

Using this lead, we performed keyword searches and found a report published by The Independent on January 23, 2020, titled ‘Passengers scream on Ryanair flight to Stansted as cabin suddenly fills with smoke.'

The report also shared a video similar to the viral video. The report stated that smoke began to flood the packed cabin just moments after the Boeing 737-800 took off from the Romanian capital of Bucharest.

Another report published by Metro on January 22, 2025 with the headline ‘Panic on Ryanair flight after cabin suddenly fills with smoke’ confirmed that the incident took place on January 21, 202.

The report stated that the London bound flight was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff when smoke flooded the cabin.

Quoting a Ryanair spokesperson, the report wrote “We believe this was caused by ingestion of defrosting fluid in the air conditioning system.”

The viral video shows smoke filling Ryanair’s Boeing 737-800 plane en route from Bucharest to London. The incident took place on January 21, 2020. The video is five years old and is not connected to the Ahmedabad plane crash.

Therefore, NewsMeter concludes that the viral claims are false.