Air India to send replacement flight to Russia’s Magadan for stranded passengers, crew

“Our ferry flight AI195 from Mumbai (BOM) to Magadan, Russia (GDX) is now airborne, and is expected to arrive at GDX at 0630 Hours (local time) on 08 June 2023,” the Tata group airline said in a statement. The ferry flight would take passengers and crew of AI173 onward to San Francisco.

UPDATE: FERRY FLIGHT TO MAGADAN AIRBORNE

Our ferry flight AI195 from Mumbai (BOM) to Magadan, Russia (GDX) is now airborne, and is expected to arrive at GDX at 0630 Hours (local time) on 08 June 2023.

An Air India team is on board the flight to provide any support that the… pic.twitter.com/oIwrqrF3po

— Air India (@airindia) June 7, 2023

“An Air India team are on board the flight to provide any support that the passengers and staff at GDX may require. The ferry flight is carrying essentials in addition to sufficient amount of food to cater to all passengers on the onward flight scheduled from GDX to San Francisco (SFO),” Air India said.

On Wednesday morning, the airline had confirmed that all passengers were being housed in makeshift accommodation in Magadan “after making sincere attempts to accommodate passengers in hotels locally with the help of local government authorities” given the infrastructural limitations around the remote airport.

This came after videos appeared on social media showing the stranded passengers put up in makeshift accommodation in what appears to be a local school. Videos of stranded passengers seeking the airline’s assistance to take them onward to San Francisco had also surfaced.

“As we do not have any Air India staff based in the remote town of Magadan or in Russia, all ground support being 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, Ministry of External Affairs (Government of India), local ground handlers, and the Russian authorities,” the airline had said on Wednesday morning.

Sources in the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) said Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is closely monitoring the situation and MoCA is in touch with Air India, which has informed that it is taking care of passengers.

The United States has said it is also closely watching the situation, considering its strained relationship with Russia and the possibility of US citizens being among the stranded passengers.

“So, we are aware of a US-bound flight that had to make an emergency landing in Russia and are continuing to monitor that situation closely. I’m not able to confirm how many US citizens were aboard the flight at this time… it was a flight that was bound for the United States. So, it is, of course, likely that there are American citizens on board,” US State Department’s Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told journalists in Washington.

“As you probably also saw, there’s public reporting from Air India that they are sending a, what my understanding is, a replacement aircraft to the destination to have the passengers carry on for their route, but I would defer to the air carrier to speak to anything further on this,” Patel added.

Neither Air India, not MoCA have commented on the nationalities of the stranded passengers. There was also no word on when the snag-hit aircraft is likely to be repaired and brought back to India. The matter could become complicated as the affected plane and engine were manufactured by US-based companies and there are US and European Union sanctions on export of aviation machinery to Russia.