An Air India Boeing 777 bound for San Francisco diverted to a small city in a remote part of Russia. Even 24 hours later, passengers are still stranded, and an Air India rescue jet has just been dispatched to Russia.
Air India Boeing 777 diverts to small Russian airport
This incident happened on Tuesday, June 6, 2023, and involves Air India flight AI173 from Delhi (DEL) to San Francisco (SFO). The flight was operated by a roughly 14-year-old Boeing 777-200LR with the registration VT-ALH. At over 7,700 miles, this is one of the longer flights out there.
The flight departed Delhi on Tuesday morning shortly after 4AM local time, as expected. Air India uses Russian airspace (even on flights to the United States), so the aircraft started flying north, initially over Pakistan, then Tajikistan, then Kyrgyzstan, then Kazakstan, and then Russia.
Around eight hours after takeoff, as the plane was supposed to start the brief overwater portion of its flight (flying over the East Siberian Sea and then the Arctic Ocean, prior to flying over Alaska), the aircraft encountered a mechanical issue, requiring a diversion. There was apparently a technical problem with one of the engines, though we don’t know the details beyond that.
The issue is, there aren’t many airports you can divert to in this part of the world. At this point the decision was made to divert to Sokol Airport in Magadan, Russia (GDX). This is a fairly small regional airport that ordinarily sees just 400K passengers per year.
After flying south for nearly two hours, the Air India 777 touched down there, just under 10 hours after departing Delhi. That shows you just how remote of an area the 777 was flying in, given that it took nearly two hours to even get to a small airport.
At this point the jet and all passengers were safely on the ground at Sokol Airport. Unfortunately matters haven’t gotten much better from that point.
Air India passengers housed in school, waiting for rescue aircraft
Upon landing at Sokol Airport, passengers first had to stay onboard the aircraft for around six hours. Obviously that’s a huge inconvenience, but fair enough — arranging accommodations and getting government approval to deplane passengers in a country for which they don’t have a visa is no small task.
The region doesn’t have many hotels, so I was curious to know the logistics of finding accommodation for 216 passengers and 16 crew members. Well, unfortunately the situation is pretty grim. Air India has reportedly housed all passengers in a school, with dozens of people per room. Passengers report that food options are incredibly limited.
— Tarun Shukla (@shukla_tarun) June 7, 2023Yesterday, @AirIndia flight 173 from Delhi to San Francisco was diverted to Magadan, in rural Russia w/ over 220, mostly elderly, passengers.
Sat in plane for 6 hrs & after 18 hrs now, no word from Air India, @MEAIndia.
Here is a just taken video from a jittery passenger : pic.twitter.com/n6qymnvXrc
Air India did find hotels for the crew members, which is leaving many passengers frustrated, especially since they’re struggling to communicate with the locals.
Passengers have now been on the ground for over 24 hours. Air India has finally dispatched a rescue aircraft, with the registration code VT-ALF. The 13-year-old Boeing 777-200LR just took off from Mumbai Airport (BOM), and should land in Russia at around 6:30AM on Thursday, June 7. So by the time the plane lands, passengers will have been on the ground for around 36 hours.
— Air India (@airindia) June 7, 2023UPDATE: 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
The next question will be whether the aircraft is able to continue right away to San Francisco, or if there are further issues there. For what it’s worth, the distance from Magadan to San Francisco is just under 4,000 miles, so the remaining flight time should be around eight hours. Magadan to San Francisco has to be one of the more unusual routes to ever operate.
This is interesting in light of Russian airspace rules
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has had quite the impact on international air travel. All kinds of countries have reciprocal airspace bans with Russia, including the United States. This only applies to US airlines, as well as airlines codesharing with US airlines on a particular route.
Foreign airlines not codesharing with US airlines are allowed to use Russian airspace, even when flying to or from the United States (assuming their own countries don’t have a similar ban).
The US has reportedly been considering restricting foreign airlines from using Russian airspace on flights to and from the United States. This is for a few reasons:
- The current system puts US airlines at a disadvantage
- The goal is to put as many embargoes in place against Russia as possible, and restricting more airlines from using Russian airspace would help with that, especially given the high fees that Russian ATC charges
- There’s a general safety concern of what would happen if a flight with a bunch of Americans diverted to Russia
Well, that’s exactly what we’re seeing here. Air India is one of the airlines that has most benefited from using Russian airspace over the past year, and now the airline has a Boeing 777 full of people (including many Americans) stranded in Russia. I imagine everything will go smoothly (especially given the good relations between India and Russia), though this is a first, as far as I know.
I’m also curious if some special permission will be required to operate a nonstop flight from Russia to the United States, given the current restrictions in place? Has Air India worked this all out already, or could there be an additional surprise here?
Bottom line
An Air India Boeing 777 flying from Delhi to San Francisco on Tuesday encountered an engine issue, leading to a diversion. What makes this diversion so interesting is that Air India uses Russian airspace, and the airline diverted to a small airport in Russia.
I believe this is the first diversion we’ve seen to Russia of a US-bound passenger jet since the start of the war. Air India has just dispatched a rescue jet, which should arrive in Magadan around 36 hours after passengers initially arrived there. The airline claims it will operate the flight to San Francisco on Thursday, June 8.
It seems that the situation on the ground in Magadan isn’t great, with passengers being accommodated in a school, in rather tight quarters. Talk about some challenging logistics on a variety of levels.
What do you make of this Air India 777 diversion?