San Francisco-Bound Air India Flight Makes Emergency Landing In Russia

The United States on Tuesday said it is closely monitoring the situation after a San Francisco-bound Air India flight made an emergency landing in Russia.

Flight AI173 from Delhi was diverted to Magadan in Russia on Tuesday owing to an engine glitch, the Tata Group-owned private carrier said in a statement last evening. The flight, carrying 216 passengers and 16 crew, landed safely.

"We are aware of a U.S.-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", State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters at his daily news conference.

"It was a flight that was bound for the United States. So, it is, of course, likely that there are American citizens on board. There's public reporting from Air India that they are sending – 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 said in response to a question.

"Given the infrastructural limitations around the remote airport, we can confirm that all passengers were eventually moved to a makeshift accommodation after making sincere attempts to accommodate passengers in hotels locally with the help of local government authorities", said a media statement.

"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, the Ministry of External Affairs (Government of India), local ground handlers, and the Russian authorities", the statement said.

A ferry flight is scheduled to operate to GDX from Mumbai, India (BOM), at 1300 hours IST on June 7, 2023, subject to necessary regulatory clearances, which would take passengers and crew of AI173 onward to San Francisco, the statement added.