Video of man, woman fighting on Indian plane was staged
A video claiming to show a man and a woman fighting on an Indian plane recently spread on social media. But verification shows it was not real; it was rather a staged production for training and raising awareness.
On September 15, the Facebook page of Bangladeshi newspaper Dainik Azadi published the video captioned, “Man and woman fight on Indian plane, stopped by two flight attendants.” The roughly 90-second clip shows a man and a woman arguing loudly inside a cabin-like room. At one point, they are seen scuffling. At the time of writing this report, the video had been shared at least 2,800 times and received more than 650 comments.
The same video was also posted on Instagram and YouTube with nearly identical claims (1, 2, 3).
To verify the claim, Dismislab conducted a keyframe search from the video and found two fact-check reports (1, 2) by Indian fact-checking outlet Factly and by news site Indian Times.
Both Factly and Indian Times reported that the incident was staged, not of any real event. It featured comedians Deepak Kalal and Rutu Ramteke. The video was first released by Fly High Institute, an aviation training center based in Nagpur. The institute regularly produces such videos, aiming to entertain while also raising awareness about passenger behavior and safety. The video in question was created solely for awareness purposes and did not depict any real incident.
Factly’s further explained that Fly High Institute in Nagpur produced the clip for training purposes, and noted that it previously debunked other staged content (1, 2) from the same institute, also featuring Kalal, Ramteke and others.
A review of Fly High Institute’s Instagram account shows such staged content is posted there regularly. The videos demonstrate how cabin crew might handle different difficult situations onboard. The clips often appear very realistic. As part of that effort, the institute produced the video featuring content creators Kalal and Ramteke. Verification shows both creators were tagged in the original Instagram post. The 1:24 minute video is also available on their Instagram accounts.
Notably, Deepak Kalal is an Indian comedian known to netizens as a content creator. Rutu Ramteke is also a comedian. Earlier in June, another video of her quarreling with a passenger on a plane went viral. Indian fact-checker Newschecker confirmed that the clip was also staged.
