RUSSIA- Tata Air India (AI) dedicated ferry flight to evacuate Delhi- San Francisco passengers land at Magadan Airport (GDX) in Russia with food and other necessary items.
The special flight took off from Mumbai Airport (BOM) on Jun 7. Subsequently, after being airborne for more than Nine hours, it landed at GDX.
The situation arrived due to an AI173 flight from Delhi (DEL) to San Francisco (SFO) over Russian airspace diverted to the Magadan Airport in Russia over a suspected Engine problem.
Air India Ferry Flight lands in Russia
According to Flight Radar 24, the Air India AI195 operating Boeing 777 with Registration VT-ALF departed from BOM at 9:35 AM UTC due to a delay.
As mentioned earlier, after nine hours, it finally made touched down at Russia’s GDX at 7:13 PM UTC. The aircraft will stay on the ground for a couple of hours or more until all stranded passengers get onboard.
Further, the AIESL MRO team will look for the defect on VT-ALH that made a diversion earlier. Subsequently, they will ferry flights after inspecting them and doing necessary maintenance work.
Earlier today, Air India issued an official statement about the ferry flights on its social media. Further, they have set up a dedicated hotline to facilitate quicker updates to those concerned about passengers in Magadan.
Air India Official Statement
The Airline issued the latest update on AI173 and wrote,
Al173, operating Delhi-San Francisco on 06 June 2023, had developed a technical issue en route with one of its engines. The flight with 216 passengers and 16 crew was diverted to Magadan, Russia (GDX), where it safely landed. We engaged with the local authorities at GDX, which extended all cooperation and support upon the flight’s arrival at GDX.
Given the infrastructural limitations around the remote airport, we can confirm that all passengers were eventually moved to makeshift accommodations after making sincere attempts to accommodate passengers in hotels locally with the help of local government authorities.
As we do not have any Air India staff based in the remote town of Magadan or Russia, all ground support provided to the passengers is the best possible in this unusual circumstance. Through our round-the-clock liaison with the Consulate General of India in Vladivostok, the Ministry of External Affairs (Government of India), local ground handlers, and the Russian authorities.
A ferry flight is scheduled to operate to GDX from Mumbai, India (BOM) at 1300 Hours IST on 07 June 2023. Subject to necessary regulatory clearances. Which would take passengers and crew of Al173 onward to San Francisco. Further, the ferry flight would be carrying food and other essentials for our passengers.
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