[AMcWhirter]

As I have noted previously in the Forum Air India operates to North American and Europe by overflying Russia.

Of course this provides the airline with a competitive advantage and especially for North America.

Downside is that when something goes wrong ‘service recovery’ may not be easy as we see here.

On June 6 flight AI 173 operating non-stop Delhi-San Francisco encountered a technical issue and it had to make an unscheduled landing at Magadan in a rural area of Russia.

The Russian authorities found temporary accommodation for passengers and crew.

But as can be seen from this short clip, it is makeshift accommodation with passengers having to sleep on the floor.

Air India says it is sending a rescue flight to Magadan today.

https://twitter.com/shukla_tarun/status/1666303378249629697

[MarkivJ]

Fortunately hasn’t happened too often, thank God. They fly a total of 14-16 weekly to sfo from 3 cities

[AndrewinHK]

Congress has already discussed restricting all in and outbound US flights from overflying Russia. UK/Europe should consider doing the same, I recall the AF/KLM CEO has also brought this up. The Chinese and Indian carriers amongst others have a huge unfair advantage, not to mention indirectly passengers are paying money to Russia for the overfly rights.

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fqtvgla, BackOfThePlane

[AMcWhirter]

Exactly MarkivJ.

I believe this is the first time an Air India flight had to divert over Russia.

[Inquisitive]

[postquote quote=1367767]

It is easy to talk politics without knowing full context.

Just to remind, many countries of Europe are still buying Russian oil and gas and obviously paying money for that to Russia. So a small fees for flying in Russian airspace is a moot point.

The ongoing war is very unfortunate, many not clear why these two countries are still fighting without any negotiation for truce and why there is limited effort from UN or other countries for ceasefire. But day to day life for people in rest of the world cannot stay standstill or restricted.

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Luc Jones, Auto Alpha, Mark, LuganoPirate

[BackOfThePlane]

Sorry, ‘many not clear why these two countries are still fighting’? Which is the confusing bit?

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fqtvgla, Celticplumber, GrahamC

[AndrewinHK]

@inquisitive my comments were not political, I was merely pointing out from a competition stand point, it is surprising why regulators are not looking at this.

1 user thanked author for this post.

BackOfThePlane

[JamesTC]

I see on Flightradar24 that yesterday’s flight took a much more Southerly routing, avoiding Russian airspace.

I wonder whether this was due to prevailing winds, or an Air India decision to suck up the extra costs, to reassure passengers?

[Captain Dunes]

The Air India flight from Delhi (DEL) to San Francisco (SFO) was redirected to Magadan, Russia due to unforeseen circumstances or operational reasons.

[AMcWhirter]

Hello Captain Dunes,

According to reports the diversion was necessary because of “a defect in the oil system of one of the aircraft’s engines.”

The ferry flight Mumbai-Magadan (which later transported the stranded passengers on to San Francisco) carried four engineers and they rectified the problem.

The B777 in question was then flown back to Mumbai from Magadan.

https://zeenews.india.com/aviation/air-india-aircraft-stranded-in-russia-flies-out-from-magadan-to-mumbai-glitch-resolved-2619956.html

[Author]

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