Air India has dispatched a rescue aircraft to Krasnoyarsk, Russia after a mechanical delay yesterday forced the diversion of a US-bound 777-200LR jet.
Rescue Aircraft Enroute To Pick Up Stranded Passengers In Russia After Mechanical Issue Forces Diversion Of US-Bound Flight
On Thursday, July 18, 2024, Air India flight 183 took off from Delhi (DEL) bound San Francisco (SFO). The flight was operated by Boeing 777-200LR (registration number VT-ALG).
AI83 took off just before 4:00 pm local time from Delhi with 225 passengers and 19 crew members onboard. While traveling over Russia, a technical default (fire sensor) occurred and the decision was made to divert to Krasnoyarsk International Airport (KJA) in Russia. Krasnoyarsk is the second-largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk, with a population of over 1 million.
The aircraft landed at 11;57 pm local time on Thursday, and it remains on the ground today (crew were taken to hotels while passengers were forced to remain in the international departures area of the terminal). This has angered many passengers:
https://twitter.com/mreastindian/status/1814000983158194271
But in fairness to Air India, it’s rather hard to pull together things like water and meals so quickly in an airport in which you have no presence. Hopefully, passengers have now been fed as they wait for a replacement aircraft. Some emergency visas were also granted, such that many guests now have hotel rooms.
Here’s how Air India described the incident:
Air India flight AI183 of 18 July 2024 operating Delhi to San Francisco made a precautionary landing at Krasnoyarsk International Airport (KJA) in Russia after the cockpit crew detected a potential issue in the cargo hold area. The aircraft landed safely at KJA with all 225 passengers and 19 members of the flight crew, who have now disembarked and have been taken to the terminal building for further processes.
As Air India does not have its own staff at KJA, we are arranging for third party support to provide all necessary assistance to passengers. Air India is also in liaison with government agencies and regulatory authorities, and we are making arrangements for a ferry flight to KJA to take passengers onwards to San Francisco at the earliest.
All of us at Air India are concerned about the passengers and staff and are making every effort possible to operate the ferry flight as soon as possible, and to ensure the health, safety, and security of all while they wait. We will share further updates as soon as they are available.
That ferry flight from Mumbai (BOM) has now departed and is en route to KJA to pick up passengers and crew members and continue the journey to San Francisco (SFO). Air India dispatched an ex-Etihad 777-300ER (registration number VT-AEQ).
AI1179 on its take-off run to Krasnoyarsk pic.twitter.com/bpoLB3rZIP
— Air India (@airindia) July 19, 2024
This flight is over 7,700 miles and only operates because Inida is able to utilize Russian airspace. United Airlines canceled its service on this route, finding it commercially impossible to operate the route without doing the same.
After the start of the war in Ukraine, US and European carriers banned Russian aircraft from its airspace and Russia responded by blocking European and US carriers from its airspace.
CONCLUSION
Air India has dispatched a rescue aircraft to pick up passengers stranded in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. That 777-300ER is now enroute and will arrive sometime this evening.
I’ll have more to say about the geopolitical ramifications of diversions like this in a later post.
image: Air India
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