Claim: A video shows a littered aisle, as well as a dirty toilet, including tissues, water, and human excrement at the edge of the chair commode, inside a British Airways flight from Pakistan to London.
Fact: The video is neither recent nor from a British Airways flight from Pakistan to London. It is, in fact, from a flight from Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia in 2016.
On 19 July 2023, Pakistani-origin Australian author Harris Sultan quote-tweeted (archive) a post by the Twitter account @InsaneRealitys and wrote:
“In case you are thinking about saying it but can’t because you don’t want to be called racist, here it is:
These people are uncivilised and primitive!”
The post by @InsaneRealitys that he quote-tweeted is a video apparently from the inside of an aeroplane, depicting a littered aisle and a dirty toilet, including tissues, water, and human excrement at the edge of the chair commode.
The text “British Airways Flight from Pakistan to London” is superimposed on the video.
The tweet by Sultan — whom Soch Fact Check has previously fact-checked as well — has been viewed more than 8,000 times.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the video and found the clip to be unrelated to Pakistan.
It was, in fact, “filmed on an inaugural flight from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia”, according to a Daily Mail report (archive) from 5 September 2016. The publication said it was first posted on 30 August 2016, apparently on Facebook page @mabr0k, which does not appear to be active anymore.
Other media outlets — such as Ensonhaber (archive), Gulf Business (archive), and Arab News (archive) — also carried reports on the same.
“A source at Saudia [the state airline formerly known as Saudi Arabian Airlines], who refused to be identified, told Arab News that most of the passengers on the aircraft were deportees,” Arab News wrote.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the video posted here, here, here, here, here, and here on Twitter, with over 3.8 million, 1.9 million, 306,100, 88,800, 13,600, and 6,000 views, respectively.
We also found the video on Facebook here, here, and here.
On TikTok, one post containing the video gained close to two million views.
We also found that the video was shared in 2019 as well, with the claim it showed Hajj pilgrims flying from India but was debunked by AFP Fact Check and Factly, both accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), of which Soch Fact Check is also a signatory.
Conclusion: The video is from a flight from Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia in 2016. It is neither recent nor from a British Airways flight from Pakistan to London.
Background image in cover photo: Wioson JIANG
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