Air India passengers stranded in Russia fly off to San Francisco, share ordeal | Updates

Air India’s replacement flight has taken off from Russia’s Magadan for San Francisco, carrying all crew members and passengers after being stranded in the Russian town for hours. On Wednesday, an Air India Delhi-San Francisco flight was forced to divert and land in Magadan due to a ‘technical issue’ with one of its engines.

The flight AI 173 has to land in the remote Russian town and a replacement flight took off from Mumbai, carrying food and other essentials in the early morning on Thursday. It reached Magadan airport at 6:30 (local time).

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In the latest tweet by Tata Group-owned Air India, the replacement flight would arrive in San Francisco at 12:15 am (local time) on Thursday.

The Boeing 777-200 LR aircraft, carrying 216 passengers and 16 crew members, landed safely on Wednesday in Russia.

Apart from the replacement flight, the private carrier also mobilised additional on-ground support at San Francisco airport to carry out the clearance formalities for all passengers upon arrival.

The team in San Francisco is prepared to provide all necessary assistance to the passengers, including limited medical care, ground transportation, and onward connections in applicable cases.

Passengers moved to makeshift accommodation

Air India released a media statement on Wednesday, in which they confirmed that “all passengers were eventually moved to makeshift accommodation, after making sincere attempts to accommodate passengers in hotels locally with the help of local government authorities.”

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“As we do not have any Air India staff based in the remote town of Magadan, all ground support being provided to the passengers is the best possible in this unusual circumstance though our round-the-clock liaison with the Consulate General of India in Vladivostok, Ministry of External Affairs (Government of India), local ground handlers, and the Russian authorities.”

US citizens on stranded Air India plane

In Washington, the US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said that fewer than 50 American citizens were in the plane and the department was not aware of any of them reaching out to the US Embassy in Russia or other diplomatic posts.

"It was a flight bound for the US so it is, of course, likely there are American citizens... We are continuing to monitor the situation," he said.

What did the Indian government say?

Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is tracking the situation very closely, the ministry said this morning, noting that it is in constant touch with the airline. The ministry also said it had been told by AI some passengers had been housed in a school building near the airport.

Meanwhile, photos and videos that surfaced on Twitter tell a different story. Some passengers shared pictures in which they can be seen sleeping on mattresses on the floor of what appear to be homes or dormitories.

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Another tweet was of a 45-second video shared by another passenger showing people gathered in a small school-like building with benches and tables set aside to make room for mattresses spread on the floor.

"Yesterday, Air India flight 173 from Delhi to San Francisco was diverted to Magadan, in rural Russia w(ith) over 220, mostly elderly, passengers. Sat in the plane for 6 hours and, after 18 hours now, no word from Air India. Here is a just taken video from a jittery passenger…" the tweet at 10 am Wednesday said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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