Yesterday, an Air India aircraft scheduled to fly from India to the United States diverted to Russia, creating a rather uncomfortable situation for many passengers (both literally and figuratively). I wanted to provide an update, as Air India has done a pretty good job with its ”rescue” effort here…
Continue reading: US-Bound Air India Flight Diverts To Russia, With Solid Rescue Effort
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I don't believe that this is this flight's first unexpected emergency landing in Russia.
As I had recalled, the AI Delhi-SFO flight on June 8, 2023, had to make an emergency landing in remote Magadan, Siberia, and it gook 2 days for AI to ferry the passengers to SFO.
This could happen with a US airline (Asia to US routes where they get close to Russia and the airport is the closest divert airport). An AA 777 pilot that live streams to Instagram has said they are still permitted to divert to Russia if absolutely necessary (i.e. confirmed fire).
This is why airlines whose countries do not have good relations with Russia are not allowed to overfly Russia.
same for Iran and other countries.
what goes up does come down and no airline can completely control when and where there is a need to land.
AI will make sure that Americans are taken care of but there is a risk in overflying a country that an airline cannot always control
Have been to KJA many times. Luckily for these people, it's a very new and nice airport! (Though obviously they've lost their priority pass lounge, lol)
Correct, which makes sense. There's really no vested interest for anyone to have a plane crash because they couldn't divert somewhere.
As you said yourself
India and Russia have a good relationship
Both parties will want to keep this mutually beneficial partnership going.
Hence no harm will come to the Americans or anyone else for that matter.
The Russians will be decisive in assisting Air India in getting the passengers to there intended destination and everyone will be safe.
These things happen and all we can do is work together for the best of the people
Respect is clear between both hence there is no need to panic as the Russians wouldn’t want to harm there ally or risk any incident
We can all be rest assured of that.
I wish Air India the best of luck in sorting this hurdle out:)
Correct, it's a pretty big city around 1m people. Much better than Magadan, where the last AI flight diverted, which is around 100k people.
Western governments, US and EU, need to step up and make sure foreign airlines aren’t getting an unfair edge by flying through Russian airspace. Plus, this will help keep Western travelers from being rerouted to Russia.
There are international treaties that obligate nations to allow their airspace to be be used in emergencies, although outlaw nations don't necessarily follow their spirit. Within the past month an El Al 737 performing, if I recall correctly, Warsaw-Tel Aviv, had a passenger with a medical emergency and had to land at Ankara or Istanbul, but the Turks refused to refuel the plane sufficient to take off and make it to Tel Aviv, and the flight had to divert to Greece to refuel.
Codeshare or not, I firmly believe that the US (and for that matter the EU, NATO countries and any others aligned with the west) needs to prohibit routings that use Russian airspace. Sure Russia and India are cozy; there however are probably many American passport holders of Indian descent. I don't trust Putin anymore than I trust a venomous snake.
Trust Air India to not only fly a risky route, but then also have such poor maintenance that they also have to divert. Clown car airline.
VT-ALG has not been having a good few months. Lots of tech issues.
Ironically it was her two sister ships ALH (diversion) and ALF (rescue flight) who were involved in last year's Russia drama. She must have been feeling left out
Air India should not be allowed to operate polar flights to USA anymore. That airlines lethargic culture has already caused two risky diversions and they are one more mistake from being the next 777 in the news in a bad way. I hold the USA department of transportation complicit for not revoking their permission/certificates after the last time.
All this just because Puri wants a legacy of not letting the 3 far superior Middle East airlines safely carry their citizens when they cannot.
I very highly doubt any of their staff have the training required for polar flights
Oh no, the horror! If the bears don't eat you, I'm sure a random Russian will shoot you because they're all evil, obviously.
It's an emergency diversion for a few hours. People need to chill out.
The risk with such a rule is that foreign airlines, especially those with a small presence in the US, will stop service entirely, reducing competition and connectivity. On the other hand, why even bother blocking American airlines from Russian airspace if foreign airlines are still allowed to fly through it?
As a US Citizen of Indian descent, I'd be more comfortable making emergency landing in Pakistani airports (who I trust would give great treatment to the passengers if needed) over this true terrorist state, why the US authorities allow routings over Russia on any to/from flights baffles me.
Air India flights to North America are frequently seen over northern Greenland and north of Russia on FR24. I'm not sure why you'd believe that AI big jet pilots are less qualified or capable than any other pilot.
Russia is not going to harass any passengers flying on Indian, Chinese or Arabian carriers. I will be more comfortable in emergency landing in Russia than Pakistan or China any day.
Once the passenger was assisted, there was no more emergency and Turkey was not required to act as if there was. At that point, normal relations would be restored and Turkey does not allow direct flights to or from Israel.
Speaks volumes about Air India maintenance that this is the second time they've had this issue ... QR, EK, CX (on JFK-HKG runs), and more all fly over Russia en route to the U.S., and none of them have had any US-bound diversions, to the best of my knowledge -- yet Air India has had two!
Welcome to Russia, get detained, kidnapped and tortured to death in a Siberain gulag.
They will treat everyone, including US citizens, as good as possible. But as the Magadan diversion shows, options might be very limited. But that was the same when an LX 777 diverted to Iqaluit (YFB) in northern Canada.
The overwhelming majority of the Americans on board are of Indian-origin. Indian-Americans have increasingly been a key backer of Putin’s ally Modi. Putin won’t bite the hand that buys a lot of energy and weapons supplies from Russia and provides Russia with the means to get around “western” sanctions. In other word, they will be fine.
Pakistan and even Iran would be fine for the average American on an Air India flight.
Personally, I would be more concerned about ending up in Russia. Iran somewhat less so than Russia if I were on such a flight. Pakistan wouldn’t be an issue for me since it’s susceptible to US pressure in a way that Russia and Iran or not. But that’s just me.
@sght, if the Russian authorities find a us citizen on this flight who they don't like (such as some bad online criticism) can bet would use this opportunity to take him away.
Pakistan won't do anything to us citizens (and likely not Indians either)
Luke, relax. You have swallowed CIA psyops Kool Aid more than most. The passengers will be inconvenienced but will be fine.
It astounds me how thoroughly and uncritically Americans and their surrogates have swallowed the CIA playbook since Russia crossed Ukrainian borders in order to halt NATO expansion. Putin is far more trustworthy than an America that promised not to encroach 'one more inch' into Eastern Europe after the Soviet Union collapsed.
You digital warriors need to relax a bit. If US airlines are being harmed by American sanctions on Russia, remove the sanctions! Simple as that.
Russia’s expanded invasion of Ukraine from 2022 didn’t stop the expansion of NATO. It expedited the expansion of NATO and created a super long addition of the border between Russia and NATO. Putin scored an own-goal there but is buying his time in his hopes of Trump and Vance disemboweling NATO for him.
"Russia is not going to harass any passengers flying on Indian, Chinese or Arabian carriers." - Until they do.
And if someone is on the flight who they consider a person of interest, little can be done. Not from the Indian Government - no matter what you think, don't kid yourselves people.
And no one has swallowed any Kool Aid to think this - the trust you people place in Putin is just insane.
To the OP, the US Government is not forcing foreign carriers to not overfly Russia. This is an AI decision supported by the Indian Government
It is simple..do not fly with an airline which flies over Russia. The possibility like this can happen anytime.
Again like in the other topics dicussed here. Be aware of the airlines you fly, if you are sensitive that your personal feelings or political/ religious belief is in danger to be compromised.
If you're a potential person of interest to Russia, you should avoid flying on flights that overfly there. Simple.
Don’t forget that to this date american weapons are being used to gun down fellow americans in america and especially in the independent state of palestine.
American brainwashing working. there are thousands of americans and american companies thriving in china. What are you talking about? You think chinese will start dragging people off the plane and put you in jail? High likelihood they will put grant you a visa on arrival so that you can stay in off airport hotel that’s 2000% much better than airport hotel in the US.
USA never promised not to expand NATO. That is Russian disinformation. I cite Harvard as my source.
https://hls.harvard.edu/today/there-was-no-promise-not-to-enlarge-nato/
Evan Gershkovich, don't believe your lying eyes. Hey, Alexei Navalny, wake up. Nap time's over.
I'm gonna push back on this comment. Its Indian Americans who practice a very extremist form of Hinduism and believe in nonsecular ideology that are the key ally for the Fascist state that India has become. The political tide may be changing in India, but its India, we never know.
The Indian Government won't come to rescue for anything. India has had a cruel history of forced sterilization, and pogroms of its own citizens. Yet, we expect India to come to rescue if a person has any issues in Russia, ya not happening.
@Indopithecus It behooves me that you've swallowed the Modi KoolAid.
You're overgeneralization of thinking Americans are just Anti-Russia because of the Ukrainian invasion is preposterous. Russia doesn't only impose a threat to Americans along nationality, but it extends beyond that including but not limited to LGBTQIA+ people, persons with different political opinions etc. You're viewpoint is probably to narrow since you only subscribe to state sponosored and censored media from Adani, Ambani, Zee, and the political machine of the sort. 😉
The local infrastructure in Krasnoyarsk is certainly better than in Magadan.
I flew through Krasnoyarsk in 2004 (on the most-unfortunately named airline ever, KrasAir), and the airport was typical Soviet-decrepit.
That being said, I believe they've built entirely new terminals since then, and it does serve a city of over 1 million people. It's not like trying to provide for stranded passengers in Magadan (or Iqualuit, to use a "Western" example).
The biggest complications are that AI has no presence there, there's no partner airline with an operation there, and NOBODY (except perhaps the crew) has Russian visas.
I know you're joking, but funny enough, there is a Hilton Garden Inn in Krasnoyarsk, and it's actually quite nice.
So now the question becomes, if you spend 20 hours in a russian airport can you safely say that you have been to russia? Or do you need to get your passport stamped to claim that?
Personally I don't think aircrafts that are going to/from the US or the EU should be utilizing Russian Airspace on their routes, though it appears that Air India handled the situation to the best of its ability given the circumstances. Given the trade embargo, I am curious if India will have to pay to get the plane transported out, or apply for a special waver to import the parts for repairs, since the embargo blocks the importation of parts and dual use goods.
AI seems get some kind of “kick” with these rescue missions. Instead they should focus on fixing their planes. This route seems to have a lot of issues. They should not be praised for something that shouldn’t have happened in the first place
They recently cancelled EWR-DEL to pick up the Indian cricket team inconveniencing so many passengers, didn’t they? Everyone except the passengers supported the mission !
Do the astronomical overflight fees paid by the few airlines that still fly over Russian airspace include an agreement in case of diversion to not wrongfully detain passengers?
I've transited at SVO multiple times and airports of numerous countries without ever entering. No I dont count them as "visited" lol
I would expect Russia to honor international law regarding arrest warrants in such a case, but am not sure what they are. If there is no arrest warrant (I.e. some US anti-Russia blogger) I’m certain they would not “grab” you. This said, if I would criticize Russia publicly I would go the extra mile for safety and not fly through their airspace.
If even the flights that are not allowed to use Russian air space get close enough to be diverted there then what's the point in not allowing it....That does not make any sense. By that logic might as as well either allow it or fly far enough away so a diversion does not have to be done.
Mmm, interesting. I suppose folks with Muslim-sounding names should share the concerns as described by @Joe when overflying the US. Even more so owing to the fact that US security services has a vast library of names to arrest on touchdown. As has been proven time and time again American paranoia is comically faulty.
A call out to Leonard Peltier. the prisoners at Guantanamo, and the denizens of numerous 'black sites' around the world! Hypocrisy can be fought with knowledge.
I avoid all airlines that use Russian airspace on their flights to/from EU. The risk is not worth it. Luckily, thanks to the maintenance issues in Russia, many airlines avoid their airspace these days even when not subject to sanctions.
EU should really expand the sanctions to ban all flights to/from the EU to use Russian airspace, no matter who operates them. Same goes for the US. The current setup puts their citizens at risk, and also European airlines at disadvantage.
They don't but Russian authorities obviously don't want to give any incentives to airlines to avoid their airspace. And generally speaking, unless someone of a political value is on board, why would they wrongfully detain the passengers? Now matter how despicable and evil that regime is, it's not like they have any reason to arrest random people on board of a diverted flight. Nevertheless, my advice is to avoid airlines that use Russian airspace.
You obviously have been in Russia if you've spent even a second on the Russian sole. You haven't seen or experienced much of it though.
Getting a passport stamp has nothing to do with it, it's not like the airside is outside of Russia, or a neutral soil.
There is no "independent state of Palestine" and thanks to the stupid war they started in October, there won't be for many decades.
Northern Greenland does not require the same qualification as the polar route. Since Air India has no flights using the polar route, it's absolutely reasonable to assume their pilots aren't trained for the related procedures.
No idea why people are commenting about pilots - I haven't said anything about them. I just think it really tells you what that airline is like that they fly this flightpath and this is the second time in a year this has happened.
There's nothing wrong with the aircraft. It is already on the way back to India as a ferry flight. The issue was a fire indicator which forced the crew to discharge the suppression system. That has to be refilled and then the aircraft can be back in service.
You read the comments and its obvious that a lot of people have burnt hind parts for Air India getting to use optimal nonstop routing.
The fact that not happened to a single passenger other than the inconvenience of a diverted flight, does not get in the way of this hate mongering!
All US citizens are at risk of been detained in Russia for no reason other than becoming a bargaining chip. However as someone who holds a high level security clearance, I’m the kind of person they’d come and yank out of the terminal… and you can bet the Russians insisted on a complete manifest before agreeing to the diversion.
Russia and India have positive relations. India is a large purchaser of Russia fuel and weapons. Russia is not going to want to do anything to disturb that relationship. It is easier for them to pick up a US journalist or a US citizen who is in Russia (ie. Married to a Russian citizen).
Nonsense. And you don't hold ANY security clearance. Stop lying on the internet.
As if it took another reason not to set foot onboard one of their filthy planes. 😀
Western governments have absolutely no say in how airlines route their flights, except for flights that carry codeshares (such as the Emirates flights that flew over Iran).