Newsletters
Following the tragic crash of an Air India aircraft on Thursday, which resulted in the deaths of 241 passengers, several Indian media outlets launched a disinformation campaign falsely linking Turkish Technic—a prominent Türkiye-based aircraft maintenance provider—to the incident.
The flight, which carried 242 people en route from Ahmedabad, India to London’s Gatwick Airport, went down in the afternoon, with the cause still under investigation.
Despite the absence of official conclusions, misleading content spread rapidly across online platforms. Some posts, including those shared by national television channels, falsely claimed that Turkish Technic had performed maintenance on the crashed aircraft, thereby implicating the company without evidence.
Contrary to the reports circulating in the Indian media, the aircraft involved in the crash was a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Turkish Technic, however, only provides base maintenance services for Air India’s Boeing 777 fleet. The confusion appeared to stem from social media photos showing a Boeing 777 in front of Turkish Technic’s hangars in Istanbul—an entirely different aircraft type from the one that crashed.
According to a company statement shared on Instagram on April 9, Turkish Technic's agreement with Air India covers only the Boeing 777 models. These aircraft continue to operate without incident.
The disinformation campaign comes amid rising tensions between India and Türkiye, particularly following Türkiye’s formal support for Pakistan after India’s military operations in Jammu and Kashmir in early May. During this period, India launched “Operation Sindoor” in response to a terrorist attack in the disputed region. Although a ceasefire was established after several days, anti-Turkish sentiment has intensified in India.
This backlash has increasingly targeted Turkish companies operating within the country. As part of this reaction, India’s Civil Aviation Ministry revoked the security clearance of Celebi Airport Services India—a subsidiary of Türkiye-based Celebi Aviation—citing national security concerns.
Turkish Technic was among the Turkish companies affected by this political fallout. Air India CEO Campbell Wilson announced that the airline would terminate its maintenance partnership with Turkish Technic, although the agreement had not included the aircraft that crashed.
Similarly, Turkish Airlines has been impacted. In 2023, it had entered a lease agreement with IndiGo, providing aircraft and crew for flights from New Delhi and Mumbai to Istanbul. This partnership, which had already faced regulatory limitations, is now set to end by August 31, following a decision by India’s aviation authority to issue only a short-term extension.
5 min read
