Air India Says Hydraulic Glitch Forced Plane To Land In Magadan, Russia

Air India has identified and rectified the defect that grounded its Boeing Co. aircraft in Magadan, Russia, on June 6. The plane is now en route to Mumbai.

The national flag carrier's engineers fixed an oil system defect in one of the engines of the Boeing 777-200LR aircraft, a spokesperson for the airline said in a statement on Saturday. The plane will land in Mumbai later today.

"We can confirm that a defect in the oil system of one of the aircraft's engines has been rectified by our engineering team that flew on a ferry flight to GDX on June 7," the statement read. "The aircraft was checked on all safety parameters and certified serviceable before take off from GDX today."

On June 6, Air India's AI 173 flight from Delhi to San Francisco was diverted and then grounded at Magadan in fareast Russia due to a mid-air glitch in one of the engines of the Boeing aircraft. The flight had 216 passengers and 16 crew members on board. An alternate flight was arranged for them, which landed in San Francisco on June 8.

The airline apologised to the customers for the "extended delay", regretted the disruption and inconvenience caused to them and also announced full refund of their ticket price along with a voucher for future travel.

Meanwhile on June 7, Air India sent four engineers on a ferry flight to Magadan to fix the glitch. They too are now on their way back to India.