NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Air India said on Friday that a plane carrying passengers stranded in Russia had taken off for San Francisco after the previous day’s flight made an emergency landing there.
An Air India plane en route from Delhi to the west coast city was forced to make an emergency landing in Russia after the crew discovered a possible problem in the cargo hold area. It was the second such incident on the route in just over a year.
Air India said in a statement that a team of crew and security personnel was on board the ferry flight and that a special hotline had been set up for anyone wishing to contact the passengers.
Many airlines, including those from the US and the European Union, are avoiding Russian airspace following the war in Ukraine. However, Air India uses this route and thus has time and cost advantages on flights to the US.
The Indian Embassy in Russia said on social media platform X that a team of three senior officials and an interpreter had arrived at Krasnoyarsk airport to assist the passengers.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said in an emailed statement that about a third of the passengers were U.S. citizens, adding that they were in contact with a number of passengers and their family members.
The Boeing 777 aircraft with 225 passengers and 19 crew members on board made a safe emergency landing at Krasnoyarsk International Airport in Russia’s Siberia region, the airline said in a statement.
The airport said flight crew had been relocated to hotels and passengers were in the international departures area, which angered some of those stranded, according to social media posts.
Mayank Gupta, whose mother was on board the flight, wrote on X that he was “sad and angry” that her medication and luggage remained on the plane.
One passenger said on X that people were having difficulty getting food and water and posted a photo showing some passengers sleeping on the floor in the airport area.
The airport said the plane had to land because a smoke detector had gone off.
Shortly after the incident, Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsiya said the plane had taxied to a parking space after landing and there were no signs of fire or smoke on board.
Boeing has contacted Air India for comment on the incident.
In retaliation for Western sanctions related to the war in Ukraine, Russia has banned numerous foreign airlines from entering its airspace. In addition, numerous countries and airlines have banned their aircraft from flying over all or parts of Russia.
The flight bans have changed flight routes and disrupted the business models of some airlines, which now have to fly around the world’s largest country. United Airlines has canceled many of its nonstop flights between the US and India due to the situation.
In June 2023, an Air India Boeing aircraft was stranded on the same route for a day after a technical problem was reported. Air India sent a plane to pick up the stranded passengers a day later.
(Reporting by Urvi Dugar, Kanjyik Ghosh, Gnaneshwar Rajan and Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru and Lisa Barrington in Seoul, Ron Popeski, Aditya Kalra and Aditi Shah; Editing by Franklin Paul, Lincoln Feast, Jamie Freed, Miral Fahmy and Diane Craft)
