The infamous 2015 Chennai airport flood image is falsely peddled as Ahmedabad again in 2023.
Claim
The viral tweet in Hindi is roughly translated to “#Gujarat Model Ahmedabad airport became port. Why out of sight of #media?”
Rating
Explanation
In the viral image, we can see the airport where a few aeroplanes are partially submerged in water. The users shared this picture with the claim that it is Gujarat model and is from Ahmedabad airport. They also added that it looks like a port since it is surrounded by water on all sides and asked why has the media not covered this. Many users have shared similar messages on both Facebook and Twitter which can be viewed here, here, here and here.
#गुजरात_माडल का अहमदाबाद एयरपोर्ट बना बंदरगाह।#मीडिया की नजरों से ओझल क्यों ? pic.twitter.com/5LeCCg8ycT
— Er,UTTAM CHAND MIG FIGHTER (@UTTAMCHANDYKT) August 2, 2023
Come, let’s see how much authenticity the tweet with the viral image holds.
What’s the truth?
When we started the simple Google reverse image process, we stumbled upon lots of articles from 2017. All the articles directed us to the infamous event of sharing the wrong image by The Press Trust of India(PTI). The article from Scroll.in explains the incident that how PTI used an old image of a flooded Chennai airport from 2015 and claimed it as Ahmedabad airport with the same image in 2017.
Reportedly, it is said that the then-Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani called out the error done by PTI and asked for an explanation right away. After, this PTI reacted immediately with the reply, “PTI deeply regrets the error and has terminated the services of the concerned photographer” to the minister. Scroll has covered the incident which can be seen below.
PTI deeply regrets the error and has terminated the services of the concerned photographer; @smritiirani and @shashidigital
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 28, 2017
Similarly, the same image was circulated again while Chandigarh experienced heavy floods in 2017 with misinformation. Hindustan Times has covered this incident and published an article mentioning that the picture is from 2015 Chennai floods and not from Chandigarh.
What is more interesting is that the same viral image finds its place again among some users with another false narrative now in 2023 as well. This image is falsely claimed as Ahmedabad ever since PTI misidentified it.
Thus, it is perfectly clear that the above viral image of Chennai flood from 2015 is wrongly portrayed as Ahmedabad.
Conclusion:
Therefore, we conclude that the above viral image doing rounds on the internet from 2017 till now is actually from Chennai 2015 floods. So, we request our readers to be aware of this particular image because it has its own history and it won’t be a surprise if it pops again after some 10 years with another fascinating story.
