US-bound Air India passengers face tense wait after landing in Russia

Hundreds of passengers and crew on an Air India flight from New Delhi to San Francisco face a tense wait to complete their flight after an engine problem forced them to land in the far east of Russia.

The emergency landing at Magadan, on the Sea of Okhotsk, raises questions about how Russian authorities will treat the Boeing 777 aircraft and its GE Aerospace engines, as well as any people among the 216 passengers and 16 crew carrying passports from countries seen as hostile to Russia.

The US State Department said it could not confirm if any American citizens were on board the service, adding that it was “monitoring the situation closely”. However, given the flight’s destination, there are almost certain to be many.

Air India said it would send an alternative aircraft to allow passengers to complete the journey from Magadan to San Francisco on Wednesday.

“The authorities are extending all co-operation in our effort to ensure that passengers safely reach their destination at the earliest,” the airline said.

The carrier had earlier said the flight, numbered AI173, had developed a “technical issue” with one of its engines.

“The flight with 216 passengers and 16 crew was diverted and landed safely in Magadan airport in Russia,” Air India said.

It is unclear whether engineers from either Boeing or GE — both US companies — would be allowed to travel to Russia to service the aircraft, given US sanctions against the country following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. After the imposition of sanctions, Russia has seized scores of western-owned chartered aircraft that were under Russian operators’ control.

There have also been incidents when western citizens in Russia have been detained for apparently minor or non-existent breaches of Russian law. They include Brittney Griner, a US basketball player detained in February last year and sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment for holding some cannabis-infused oil. She was eventually released in a prisoner swap.

Evan Gershkovich, a US citizen working in Russia for The Wall Street Journal, was arrested in March on charges of espionage which he, the US authorities and his employer strenuously deny. He remains detained awaiting trial.

The diversion comes the day after Scott Kirby, chief executive of the US’s United Airlines, warned at the Iata annual meeting in Istanbul of the risks of flights of aircraft with US citizens on board over Russia.

“When you fly over Russia, you use a Russian airport as a place to divert aeroplanes,” Kirby said at a briefing. “If there are mechanical issues or medical issues, you’re going to land in Russia. What’s going to happen if an airline lands in Russia with some prominent US citizens on board? That is a potential crisis in the making.”

Andrew Charlton, a Geneva-based aerospace analyst, pointed out that carriers from several countries that were “non-aligned” in the Ukraine war — including China and Turkey — continued, like Air India, to fly over Russia.

“I would hope that the US citizens would be mostly ignored, rather than create a diplomatic incident that will annoy the Indians as well as the Americans,” he said.

He added that any necessary parts for the aircraft would need to be flown in from outside Russia. Because of sanctions, aircraft parts in Russia are now mostly cannibalised from old aircraft, raising questions about their provenance that would invalidate most international insurance contracts.

GE Aerospace said it was “aware” of the diversion of the Air India flight.

“We are working to support our customer to resolve the issue,” it said.