A video showing an altercation on an aeroplane is circulating on social media with a communal claim.
What happened in the clip?: At the start of the video, two individuals can be seen engaged in a physical altercation, and a cabin crew member can be seen trying to break the fight. Other passengers then joined in the brawl.
The claim: Those sharing claimed that Muslim men beat up a Hindu man inside the flight.
They also wrote, "All the attackers have been arrested. The incident is said to have taken place on a flight going to Mumbai."
(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)
Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false.
The video shows a scuffle between passengers on the THAI Smile Airlines between Bangkok and Kolkata in 2022. The fight broke out when a passenger refused to sit upright during takeoff.
As per reports, there is no communal angle attached to the incident.
What we found: We divided the video into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image on some of them.
We came across a post on X by user Saurabh Sinha, a senior editor at the Times of India, as per his bio, from 28 December 2022.
The user noted, "Video of a fight between pax that broke out on Thai Smile Airway flight. Reportedly on a Bangkok-India flight of Dec 27." (sic.)
We, then, came across a report by the Times of India from 29 December 2022. It noted that a fight broke out between passengers on the THAI Smile Airlines Bangkok-Kolkata flight.
Why did the fight take place?: The cabin crew had asked a passenger to adjust and upright their seat during takeoff and landing. However, the passenger claimed to have back pain. The crew clarified that the seat needed to be upright to avoid blocking the way for passengers seated behind him during an evacuation, an aviation safety rule.
At this moment, other passengers began to protest against the individual's actions, resulting in a brawl. The crew and other passengers attempted to prevent the altercation.The
Similarly, NDTV and India Today also reported on this incident in 2022 and stated that the despite warning given crew members that the incident would be reported to the captain, the fight was not stopped.
NDTV added that once the fight was settled, no further incidents like such took place once the flight left for its destination.
As per a report by the Hindustan Times from 30 December 2022, a police complaint was filed against passengers under a police station in Kolkata, involved in the fight.
THAI Smile apologises: Taking to their official X account, the airlines wrote that the issue was resolved by adhering to international flight safety protocols. It noted that their flight crews had already offered assistance to the individuals impacted by the event in 2022.
None of the reports hinted at a possible communal issue in this case. The Quint has reached out to Thai Airways for a confirmation in this case.
Conclusion: An incident of a flight between passengers over safety protocol has been shared with a false communal spin.
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