Photograph of Panda Flown on a Plane: Fact Check

Story:

Panda Flown on a Plane – Unusual photograph!

Other Versions

1. Live Panda Flown from China to U.S. in Business Class Flight

2. The most unusual air passengers

Fact Check:

The Photograph of Panda flown on a Plane is often shown online as unusual and real incident. However, as explained below the Panda seen in the photograph is not real and the said incident is a hoax.

About Panda on Plane Photograph

The photograph in question appears to show a cute Panda seated in Airplane, beside a man. It’s been doing rounds online since at least 2006, when it was initially shared on Japanese Yahoo Blogs with a description suggesting the Panda is on that way back to home in United States in China travel airlines. It was also shared with various other descriptions, like unusual air passenger. Later there also came up an alleged press release from China Airlines given below:

China Airlines is a proud corporate sponsor of the panda sanctuary at Cheng Du and was happy to help out recently with the transfer of a young panda cub to a zoo in the United States of America.

After extensive consultation with the Sanctury’s veterinary staff it was concluded that the importance of the panda cub precluded it from traveling in the hold of the aircraft, where attending to its needs would be difficult. Thus China Airlines agreed to donate seats in its Business Traveler First cabin for the panda cub named Squee Squee and his carer, Fu Jiang Lang, seen here sitting in the window seat.

In the interests of hygiene Squee Squee wore a plastic nappy to take care of pandapoop during the flight. We are happy to report that Squee Squee arrived rested and relaxed after his 14-hour flight, and is settling into his new home well. During the flight we can report that he didn’t watch any of the flight movies as we couldn’t find a headset big enough for him. He did order the bamboo from catering menu, with a side of bamboo, and bamboo mousse for desert.

Flaws and Facts

The picture of Panda on Plane in fact fooled many people on internet. Many believed it to be true, also because of the alleged press release from the China Airlines. But a closer look at the photograph (shown above) reveals the Panda seated in Plane could not be a real one. It’s also because the nose of the Panda appears circular in shape, unlike in real ones that are triangular in shape (see real Pandas picture below). Like mentioned in the “press release” above, we did not find any credible information about Panda named Squee Squee. Moreover, the last paragraph of the supposed press release itself reveals the story of Panda travel in flight is just ‘made up’. So the claims in question are hoaxes; the picture most probably shows a staged incident in Plane with a Panda Toy.

Hoax or Fact:

Hoax.