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Air India announces refunds, vouchers as 216 passengers reach San Francisco
An Air India ferry flight carrying 216 passengers, who were stranded at Russia’s remote town of Magadan, arrived in San Francisco on Thursday.
An Air India ferry flight carrying 216 passengers, who were stranded at Russia’s remote town of Magadan, arrived in San Francisco on Thursday, two days after the airline’s original aircraft from New Delhi made an emergency landing due to a technical fault in one of its engines.
Read here: Air India to refund full amount to all passengers affected by Delhi-San Francisco flight
The airline apologised for the inconvenience and assured full refund to its passengers. It also announced vouchers for all the affected passengers for future travel.
Air India’s ferry flight, AI173D, took off from Mumbai at around 3.30pm (IST) on Wednesday and landed at Sokol airport in Magadan at around midnight. It subsequently departed Magadan at 4.57am (IST) and reached San Francisco at 12.37pm (IST).
“Flight AI173D landed safely in San Francisco (SFO) at 0007 Hours on 08 June 2023 (local time) (12.37pm IST),” the carrier said.
On Tuesday, flight AI 173 took off from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport at 4.20am (IST) and was scheduled to reach San Francisco at 7am local time the next day (6.30pm IST). The aircraft, however, landed at Sokol airport at 1.30pm (IST) after it developed a technical snag in one of its engines.
Air India does not have any staff based in Magadan or in Russia. It, therefore, had to take the assistance of Rossiya Airlines – one of the oldest and largest air carriers of the Russian Federation.
Airline officials said the stranded passengers were moved to a school near the airport. According to Russia state-owned news agency Sputnik, minister of transport of Magadan region, Aleksey Siorpas, said women with children or pregnant women were accommodated in the dormitory of a medical college in the city.
Taking note of the incident, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday had assured safe ferrying of the stranded passengers and 16 crew members from Magadan to San Francisco.
Besides India, the United States was also “closely monitoring” the situation keeping in mind that there may be American citizens among those stranded.
In a statement on Thursday, Tata Group-owned Air India said all the passengers were extended maximum on-ground assistance with clearance formalities and other necessary support.
“Air India thanks (the) government agencies, regulatory authorities, our staff, and partners involved in supporting our endeavour to bring our passengers to SFO as soon as possible and in providing them care while they waited in Magadan, Russia,” the airline said.
Read here: Air India plane stranded in Russia a potential red flag for global air transport
It announced a full refund and a voucher for future travel for the passengers who were affected by the diversion.
“As such, we will fully refund the fare for your journey and in addition, provide you with a voucher for future travel on Air India. Although we cannot change the past, I trust that this gesture conveys our sincere regrets for the disruption and inconvenience,” it added.
