Claim: A video shared on social media shows a Pakistan International Airlines’ plane moving through a flooded runway at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi amid heavy monsoon rain.
Fact: The video in question is from 27 August 2020. The Civil Aviation Authority also confirmed the video is old and that there were no drainage issues reported at Karachi airport amid the most recent bout of rain.
Fact or Fiction?
On 9 July 2022, Facebook user Rashid Rizvi shared a video claiming that it shows a PIA plane landing at Karachi airport amid heavy rain. The post was accompanied by the caption, “This is Karachi Airport after Raining… It’s not Sea side Landing of PIA باکمال لوگ لاجواب سروس.”
The claim was also picked up by other users and pages on Facebook such as here, here, here and here.
It was also shared on groups including, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
The 14-second long clip shows a PIA plane landing on a runway submerged in water.
Soch Fact Check found the claim to be misleading. In response to the video circulating on social media, the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said that the viral video is old and that the situation at Jinnah International Airport is normal, indicating that there are no drainage issues at the airport.
“An old video is being flushed around on social media that shows an airplane moving on a runway covered in water. Please note that this is an old video, nearly 3-year old, and does not depict the present situation at Karachi’s JIAP, which is normal, with drains working normally,” CAA tweeted on 11 July 2022.
An old video is being flushed around on social media that shows an airplane moving on a runway covered in water. Please note that this is an old video, nearly 3-year old, and does not depict the present situation at Karachi's JIAP, which is normal, with drains working normally. pic.twitter.com/wcM5VmQbFg
— PCAAOfficial (@official_pcaa) July 11, 2022
Soch Fact Check further investigated the claim by conducting a Google Reverse Image search of keyframes. The search results led us to a longer version of the video on Youtube, titled “Exclusive!! PIA Plane Emergency Landing On Water At Airport In Floods”, and published by 24 News HD on 27 August 2020.
Dunya News also reported the incident on 27 August 2020 and published an article titled “Rainwater floods Karachi airport, footage of plane on taxiway paints sorry picture” on their website.
Virality
According to a CrowdTangle analysis conducted by Soch Fact Check, the search term, “نے سمندر سے ہی ٹیک آف اور لینڈنگ شروع کر دی PIA [PIA flights have started take off and landing from the sea]”, turned up nine posts on Facebook which received 3,021 interactions over the 30-day period leading up to 23 June 2022.
The analysis revealed that Inam Butt Wrestler’s post is performing 1.45x times better than other similar posts with 424 shares and 67,500 views, while Rashid Rizvi’s post received 47 shares and 1,900 views.
On Twitter, the clip was shared by former Information minister and senior PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry in a post accusing the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of drowning the province of Sindh through 14 years of uninterrupted rule. His tweet received 6,591 retweets, 368 quote tweets and 13,900 likes.
And PPP wants to rule Pakistan:) 14 years of uninterrupted rule in Sindh has drowned whole Sindh and Zardaris now want whole Pak to implement great Governance model of NawabShah family… pic.twitter.com/BIOmzXSL9T
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) July 11, 2022
Twitter user Arhum (@arhuml92) also posted the clip on the platform gaining 528 retweets, 83 quote tweets and 3,020 likes.
PIA will cancel flights all the time On a normal day but aaj faltu mein Chauray Aana hai pic.twitter.com/JZpKwBKsuz
— Twitt.Arhum (@arhuml92) July 11, 2022
The video was shared on social media with the following or similar captions:
- مبارک ہو پاکستانیوں PIA نے سمندر سے ہی ٹیک آف اور لینڈنگ شروع کر دی
- PIA landing Karachi after heavy rain 10 July
- This is Karachi Airport after Raining… It’s not Sea side Landing of PIA باکمال لوگ لاجواب سروس
Conclusion: The video of a PIA plane landing on an inundated Karachi runway is not from the current spell of monsoon rains. In fact, it is an old video from 27 August 2020.