Air India on Thursday made an announcement that the replacement flight has left Russia's Magadan airport bound for San Francisco. The airline announced in a tweet that the replacement flight would touch down in San Francisco at 12:15 a.m. PDT (07:15 a.m. GMT) on Thursday to pick up passengers whose trip from Delhi to San Francisco was diverted to Russia's Far East after their Boeing BA.N 777 airliner experienced engine issues, Air India deployed the aircraft to Russia on Wednesday.
The airline stated that the aircraft "developed a technical issue with one of its engines," adding that safety checks were being performed on the plane and assistance was being given to the passengers.
Lack of infrastructure in Russian airport
Given the lack of infrastructure at the outlying Magadan airport, the airline announced in a previous statement that the more than 216 passengers and 16 staff members on board the stranded plane were housed in temporary housing.
Fewer than 50 Americans were on the plane, and the US State Department was not aware of any of them contacting the US Embassy in Russia or other diplomatic missions, according to Vedant Patel, a spokesperson for the department in Washington.
