Claim: A video shows Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf MNA Faheem Khan being beaten up onboard a plane.
Fact: The video shows a fight that broke out on a Thai Smile Airways flight from Bangkok to India on 27 December 2022.
Fact or Fiction?
On 2 January 2023, Twitter user Sarfraz Nisar shared a video claiming that it shows Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s MNA Faheem Khan being beaten up mid-air during a flight.
The video is accompanied by the following caption, “PTI MNA Faheem Khan being beaten. The party has just begun”
Soch Fact Check found the claim to be false. A Google Reverse Image Search led to an article published by the Daily Mail on 29 December 2022 about a brawl on a Thai Smile Airways flight.
The article states that a fight broke out after a passenger reclined his seat and refused to follow the cabin crew’s safety instructions. The incident took place on Thai Smile Airways flight WE313 from Bangkok to India on 27 December 2022.
The Times of India senior editor Saurabh Sinha also shared the video of the incident.
Video of a fight between pax that broke out on @ThaiSmileAirway flight
Reportedly on a Bangkok-India flight of Dec 27 pic.twitter.com/qyGJdaWXxC
— Saurabh Sinha (@27saurabhsinha) December 28, 2022
Other publications, including Times of India, Channel News Asia, CNBC TV18, NDTV, The Independent and NewYork Post, also reported on the scuffle.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the three-day period leading up to 3 January 2023 using the following search term:
- پی ٹی آئی ایم این اے فہیم خان کی پٹائی ابھی تو پارٹی شروع ہوئی ہے
The search term turned up 17 posts with 386 interactions on Facebook.
The claim can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
On Twitter, it was shared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Sarfraz Nisar’s video received 176,000 views, 2,444 likes, 935 retweets and 122 quote tweets.
Conclusion: The video does not show Faheem Khan being beaten up mid-air. In fact, it shows an Indian passenger who was involved in a scuffle on a 27 December 2022 Thai Smile Airways flight from Bangkok to India.