2018 Video of Bhangra Performance Inside Air India Flight Shared as Recent

The video is from 2018 when passengers were met with a musical surprise in a Birmingham to Amritsar flight.

A TikTok video of a Bhangra performance inside a flight is being shared on social media with the claim that it was inside the first Air India (AI) flight from India to Canada after Tata Sons tookover the debt-laden national carrier earlier in October.

However, we found the video is from 2018 when Bhangra, a folk dance of the state of Punjab, was performed inside a flight, before it took off, to celebrate the resumption of Air India's non-stop flights between Amritsar and Birmingham, United Kingdom after a gap of eight years.

CLAIM

Social media users are sharing the video along with the claim that reads, "Tata Air India first flight from India to Canada (sic)".

The video has been widely shared on Facebook and Twitter.

Archived links of videos shared along with the same claim can be seen here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On going through the comments on one of the posts on Facebook, we noticed that a user had said that the video was old.

Using the keyword "Bhangra in Air India flight", we came across a news video published by India Today on 23 February 2018, which showed the same performance.

The video caption read, "Air India's special treat for its passengers, as the government-run airline resumed its first flight between Amritsar and Birmingham after a gap of 8 years. Air India decided to celebrate the moment with Bhangra."

A report by NDTV from 23 February 2018 said that passengers travelling to India from Britain were greeted with a special dhol performance moments before the flight took off. The performance was done by the musical group called 'Dhol Blasters'.

We also found the video posted on the YouTube channel of the troop, which was posted on 9 March 2018.

Birmingham airport in a press release had said that the terminal had "come alive" on 20 February 2018 with the performances, and posted a photo where you can see the drummers seen inside the flight.

Further, according to reports, after re-acquiring Air India after 68 years, Tata Sons are likely to start operating it by 23 January 2022.

Clearly, a video from 2018 of a Bhangra performance on an Air India flight is being shared falsely claiming it is recent.

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