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07-06-2023
Bureau Report
NEW DELHI: Air India has sent an aircraft to pick up passengers whose New Delhi to San Francisco flight was diverted to Russia’s Far East after their plane developed engine trouble, India’s aviation minister said.
The Boeing 777 plane with 216 passengers and 16 crew on board Tuesday’s flight had been moved to makeshift accommodation, given infrastructure limitations at the remote Magadan airport, the airline said in a statement on Wednesday.
The diversion raised questions over how quickly the $200m United States-built plane, whose engines are made by General Electric, could be repaired amid US and European Union sanctions on exports of aviation items to Russia.
“That plane needs to be repaired, mechanics are going on board,” India’s civil aviation minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia, told reporters, referring to the flight going out to pick up the stranded passengers.
“I don’t know how long it will take to repair that aircraft but passengers will be taken to their ultimate destination.”
A source at the Magadan airport told media that Air India engineers would arrive on the reserve plane with spare parts.
A stranded passenger named Gagan told Indian broadcaster NDTV there were many US citizens on the flight who were worried, given the tension between Russia and the US.
“There are a lot of nervous people here,” the passenger said.
Some angry passengers took to Twitter to complain about inadequate supply of food at their accommodation, which they said looked like a school.
One user said his mother had been given tea, bread and some rice on Tuesday but there was later no contact as she wanted to save her phone battery as there was only one power outlet.
