An old video of a rocket launch has been circulating on social media platforms, claiming it to be of the launch of Chandrayaan-3 from Sriharikota. The video initially posted by a former ISRO official showed a rocket liftoff captured by a passenger on board a flight. It went viral soon.
The post by Dr P V Venkitakrishnan, retired Director of ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendragiri, Nagercoil, claimed that the plane was flying from Chennai to Dhaka.
"Launch of Chandrayan 3 from Flight. Sometime after takeoff from the Chennai to Dhaka flight, the pilot announced, Watch this historical event," the now-deleted post read.
Before being deleted, the clip had amassed a whopping 855.7k views, 17.7k likes and hundreds of comments.
"Wow.. what a great view.. and lucky enough to catch a glimpse," commented one user on seeing the video.
"How big the sky is... It's looking as tiny as Diwali rocket!! Amazing Shot!," wrote another user.
Another commented, "How come a passenger liner is in the air at an appointed time? Aren’t ‘No-fly’ restrictions imposed close to the lunch area? Curious!".
"I am getting goosebumps watching it, the live experience of watching it would have been a next-level experience. Amazing. A proud moment" wrote another netizen.
After taking down the tweet, Dr P V Venkitakrishnan while replying to another user's post clarified that the video was not shot by him and that he had received it on WhatsApp.
This report has been updated as we found out that the visuals as claimed by the Twitter handle [DrPVVenkitakri1] were not of the Chandrayaan-3 launch.