WHAT WAS CLAIMED
The sole Air India crash survivor has been arrested.
OUR VERDICT
False. The survivor has not been arrested.
AAP FACTCHECK - False posts about the Air India crash in Ahmedabad in which at least 270 died are spreading widely in Fiji, including that the sole survivor has been arrested.
According to the false claim, survivor Vishwashkumar Ramesh was arrested at the house where he was recovering on suspicion of involvement in the incident.
But there are no police reports to back the claim Mr Ramesh was arrested and he attended the funeral of his brother, who died in the crash, on June 19 after being discharged from hospital.
The Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed just minutes after takeoff on June 12, killing 241 of its 242 passengers, as well as others on the ground at the crash site, including students on the campus of a medical college.
Fake or out-of-context images and videos are being used to attract views and drive engagement online.
AAP FactCheck analysis found that the claims are particularly spreading in Fiji, where around a third of people are Fiji Indian as a legacy of a British indentured labour program for Indians in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
One viral post shares a reel that claims Mr Ramesh was arrested less than 48 hours after the crash.
It says he survived by jumping from the plane shortly before the crash which "immediately raised suspicions among the public and investigators".
The video adds: "upon reviewing airport surveillance footage, authorities discovered that Ramesh had illegally accessed the runway several hours before the flight and was seen placing something beneath the aircraft."
This isn't true. Mr Ramesh has recounted how he crawled out of the plane after the crash.
"I managed to unbuckle myself, used my leg to push through that opening, and crawled out," Ramesh told Indian state media DD News, according to the BBC.
There are no credible reports that he has been arrested or that he was seen placing something beneath the plane.
There are also no reports of Mr Ramesh being arrested on the Ahmedabad Police X account.
He has been discharged from hospital and attended the funeral of his brother on June 19, according to news reports and video uploaded on YouTube.
The post has also been shared by a Facebook user who appears to be based in Australia.
A separate post, which contains a TikTok video, claims to know the truth behind the incident, saying the plane crashed at the end of the runway.
This is false. Media reported that it crashed around 1.5km from the airport into a residential hostel.
The video features what appears to be an AI-generated image of the crashed aircraft and even speculates the crash was the result of a drone collision.
It also claims Mr Ramesh had said the crash "wasn't a mechanical failure — it was human…"
There is no evidence to suggest Mr Ramesh said anything of the sort. In fact, in an account of the plane going down, published by the BBC, and also on Facebook, he describes a series of issues with the aircraft and makes no reference to "human" factors.
Other posts have shared AI-generated images of the crash site.
This image of a mostly intact plane crashed into a building does not match up with pictures from the actual scene. The tail, for example, is disconnected from the fuselage in news photos.
Another social media clip being shared on Facebook by the same user is claimed to be footage from inside the plane as it fills with smoke.
However, this is not the same aircraft. The Air India Dreamliner's seat configuration is three, three and three in economy and two, two and two in business.
The aircraft in the video has three seats on each side of the aisle. The colour of the seats also does not match Air India's fleet.
Reuters also debunked the claim, tracing the smoky cabin back to a 2020 Ryanair flight.
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, BlueSky, TikTok and YouTube.
