AI sends aircraft to rescue 228 passengers stuck in Mongolia

With several passengers stranded in Mongolia since Monday after a technical glitch on board an Air India flight from San Francisco to Delhi via Kolkata, the airline on Tuesday dispatched a relief aircraft to bring them back to India. The passengers are expected to arrive in Delhi on Wednesday morning.

The Boeing 777 aircraft, operating as flight AI174 on November 2, was diverted to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, after the flight crew reported a suspected technical issue mid-air. The aircraft landed safely and all passengers and crew members were reported safe.

"On November 3, Air India Flight AI174, operating from San Francisco to New Delhi via Kolkata, made a precautionary landing at around 1959 hrs at Ulaanbaatar International Airport in Mongolia. On receipt of information from Air India, one hour prior to the landing, a team of Embassy officials were immediately deputed at the airport to facilitate immigration and hotel stay of the 228 passengers plus crew members. With the assistance of the Embassy Consular team, all immigration and visa facilitation, transportation, hotel accommodation, etc. was arranged in coordination with the Mongolian authorities," said Indian Embassy officials in Mongolia.

The flight had departed from San Francisco at 2:47 pm (Pacific Standard Time) on Monday and was scheduled to land at 7:33 pm (IST) pm on Tuesday. Following the diversion, passengers remained at the Mongolian capital’s airport before being moved to hotels after completing immigration procedures.

“Air India will be operating a relief flight to ferry the passengers of flight AI174, which was diverted to Ulaanbaatar. The ferry flight AI183 departed from Delhi on Tuesday and will return with the affected passengers on Wednesday morning,” the airline said.

As per sources, flight AI183, a Boeing 787-8, departed from Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport at around 4 pm on Tuesday and arrived at in Ulaanbaatar airport by Tuesday late evening.