Air India to send relief flight to ferry passengers stuck in Mongolia

New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS) Air India on Tuesday said it will operate a relief flight to ferry the passengers of San Francisco-Delhi flight which was diverted to Mongolia due to a suspected technical issue.

Air India flight AI174, operating from San Francisco to Delhi via Kolkata on November 2, made a precautionary landing at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, after the flight crew suspected a technical issue en route.

“Air India will be operating a relief flight to ferry the passengers of flight AI174 (San Francisco-Delhi of 02 November), which was diverted to Ulaanbaatar on Monday. The ferry flight AI183 is scheduled to depart Delhi this afternoon and return with the affected passengers on Wednesday morning,” the airline said in a latest statement.

The airline further said that along with local authorities and the Indian Embassy in Mongolia, it has been looking after the passengers and crew, including providing them hotel accommodation.

“Guests have been kept informed about the arrangements being made to fly them to Delhi. At Air India, the safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew remain top priority,” said an Air India spokesperson.

The airline had said in an earlier statement that the aircraft landed safely at Ulaanbaatar and was undergoing the necessary checks.

In the meantime, Air India has been granted a temporary extension of flight duty time for two-pilot Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes flying on European routes, which have become longer due to the closure of Pakistani airspace, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said last week.

The extension was based on specific operational reasons linked to planes on European routes having to undertake longer flight paths following the shutdown of Pakistan’s airspace, according to the civil aviation regulator.

For two-pilot Boeing 787 operations, the Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) has been extended to 10 hours and 30 minutes from 10 hours, and the Flight Duty Period (FDP) increased to 14 hours from 13 hours.

--IANS

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