Old Unrelated Image Of Passengers Sitting On The Airport Tarmac Going Viral Linking To The Ongoing Indigo Airlines Crisis.

Recently, an image of passengers sitting on the airport tarmac went viral on social media, linking it to the current crisis at Indigo Airlines. Sharing the image, users wrote, “make Railways Stations are made as Classy as Airports.

Now Airports & Lounges have become like Railway Station”

Thread Link | Archived Link.

However, as we investigated, we came to know that the claim was misleading. The image is old and unrelated to the current crisis at Indigo Airlines. Here’s the fact check.

Fact Check

We started our investigation by conducting a reverse image search. This led us to a report published in The Times of India on May 15, 2018, that contained the viral image. 

The report read, “While Sunday evening’s thunderstorm disrupted flight operations at IGI airport and led to over 70 flights being diverted, passengers on one flight heading to Bangalore from Delhi were kept waiting for over seven hours in the flight due to non-availability of crew, sources said.

IndiGo’s Delhi to Bangalore flight 6E 2977, which was supposed to take off at 10.40pm on Sunday, finally took off nearly seven hours later with passengers first having to wait in the shuttle and then inside the aircraft and on the tarmac as well.

Please read here.

A report published in the Economic Times titled “IndiGo passengers stranded on tarmac for 7 hours for non-availability of crew”, reported the same. 

This makes it clear that the viral image is old and unrelated to the ongoing Indigo Airlines crisis.

Conclusion 

From our investigation, we can say that the claim is misleading. The viral image doesn’t show the passengers sitting on the airport tarmac due to the ongoing crisis in Indigo Airlines. The image is old. It shows the passengers sitting on the airport tarmac due to the shortage of crew members in 2018.