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Tara Air aircraft that took off for Jomsom from Pokhara went out of contact.
Viral news clip is from May 2022.
Claim
Tara Air aircraft that took off for Jomsom from Pokhara went out of contact.
Fact
Viral news clip is from May 2022.
A video claiming that a Tara Air aircraft that took off for Jomsom from Pokhara has gone out of contact is going viral on TikTok.
TikTok user @santoshlamichhan886 posted a video carrying an image of Tara Air plane. Text superimposed on the video reads, “A Tara Air plane that took off for Jomsom from Pokhara has lost contact. The aircraft has not been found yet.” Audio accompanying the video presented in a News bulletin style says, “A Twin Otter owned by Tara Air that took off for Jomsom from Pokhara has gone out of contact. It has been confirmed that there were 22 people onboard including the crew members. District Police Office Kaski Ramesh Thapa said there were 19 passengers and 3 crew members onboard the aircraft. According to Yeti Air, the aircraft with call sign 9N-AET took off at 9:55, and the passengers in the aircraft included 13 Nepalis, four Indians and two foreigners. The aircraft was led by Captain Prabhakar Ghimire. Utsav Pokhrel and air hostess Krishmi Thapa were the other crew members. Tara Air said they have launched the search for the missing aircraft after it didn’t come in contact within the time it should have landed.”
The video posted on June 18 has garnered 10.6k likes, 502 users have shared it and 83 people have commented until the last count.
The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
To check the veracity of the claim, Newschecker split the video into several key-frames and conducted reverse searches on them. However, the search results didn’t show any relevant results.
We then took clues from the viral video and ran a Nepali key-phrase search for ‘Tara Air plane lost contact after take-off from Pokhara’. The search threw up several results matching the descriptions of viral claim.
On checking an article, dated May 29, 2022, posted on Nepal Live online, we found that the news reported that a Tara Air plane with 19 passengers that took off for Jomsom at 9:55 local time from Pokhara has gone missing.
We also checked another article, dated May 29, 2022, published on the Himal Khabar online. The article reported about the ordeal faced by Nepal Army while searching for a missing Tara Air plane. The article noted that no clue has been found about the Tara Air plane that went missing with 22 people onboard on May 29.
Further, we found an article, dated May 31, posted on Kathmandu Post online about the crash of a Tara Air plane that went missing with 22 people onboard. The news article reported about the recovery of 21 bodies of the 22 people aboard the Tara Air plane. The other descriptions also exactly matched the audio report of the viral claim. The wreckage of the aircraft was later found crashed in a mountain at Sano Sware Bhir in Thasang of Mustang, killing all 22 people.
We also found an article, dated May 30, 2022, published on CNN online. The CNN report exactly matched the descriptions of the viral claim.
Thus, our findings clearly showed that the viral report about the missing Tara Air twin otter is three years old. The viral report is from May 29, 2022 when a Tara Air plane went missing shortly after take-off from Pokhara.
No, the Tara Air Twin Otter has not gone missing after take-off from Pokhara. The viral video claiming that a Jomsom-bound Tara Air plane has lost contact with the air traffic control tower is from May 2022. Thus, the video is old and misleading.
Sources
Nepal Live, May 29, 2022
Himal Khabar, May 29, 2022
Kathmandu Post, May 31, 2022
CNN, May 30, 2022
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Misleading
