A drone video is viral on social media with a claim that a pilot made an announcement while landing in Prayagraj, and explained the significance of the Maha Kumbh.
However, we found that this claim is false. The video was originally taken with a drone, and the voice in the video was likely made using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and not by the pilot.
The Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, is currently taking place, with millions of devotees attending the religious gathering. It commenced on January 13, 2025, and will end on February 26.
Several users on Facebook shared the post with one user captioning the video, “International Flight Landing Announcement at Kumbh Mela”.
Archive link.
Fact-check
BOOM conducted a Google search using relevant keywords but couldn't find any media reports about such an incident.
On searching with the keyword, ‘international flights in Prayagraj’, we found some reports stating that, for the first time in 93 years, an international flight took off from Prayagraj airport with Laurene Powell Jobs, wife of Apple founder Steve Jobs, on board.
This was a Bhutan Airways flight, but there was no information about the Maha Kumbh being mentioned in the flight announcement.
Voice-over is AI-Generated
Upon further verification, we found that an Instagram account named @Anveshgraphy is mentioned in the viral video. We reached out to Anvesh Patel, who confirmed that the video was shared from his account on January 23, 2025. In the caption, he mentioned that he filmed the video himself and is currently touring the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, capturing footage using his camera and drone. He also told us that the voice in the video was human-generated.
While examining Patel's Instagram account, BOOM found several other videos in a similar format, with voice-overs resembling flight announcements. See here, here and here. These voice-overs consistently mention Patel as the co-pilot, but no details about the airlines or pilots are provided.
Further, we tested the audio using the AI detection tool Hiya.ai, which suggested it might have been modified with AI.
Additionally, we used the deepfake detection tool from the University at Buffalo’s Media Forensics Lab, which found that 88% of the voices in the audio were AI-generated.
Further, analysis of other similar audios of flight announcements uploaded by the account also showed that they were AI generated.
Below is the result of an audio of the announcement format shared on the account.
Similarly, the result of another audio also indicates that the voice is AI generated.
We also reached out to our partners at the Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU), who confirmed that some detectors, like the Deepfake-O-Meter, indicated the audio was likely manipulated by AI. Another tool, Hive Moderation, also confirmed the audio was AI-generated.
The viral footage is not of the flight landing
We also verified the viral video and found that it is not footage of a flight landing, but rather a drone shot. Patel has posted similar drone shots on his profile. He confirmed that the video was captured using a drone. "We used this type of voice-over to make it creative,” he said.
Regarding the voice-over being AI-generated, Patel said, "This voice is from one of my friends outside. It is not an AI voice." He also added, "The voice-over was done in English so that non-Hindi speakers could understand about the Kumbh." However, he refused to reveal the identity of the person who did the voice-over.
