On July 18, 2024, Air India had to divert a flight into Russia. Air India was operating AI183, its 3X weekly service to San Francisco, using VT-ALG, a 15-year-old Boeing 777-200LR delivered to Air India in 2009. The aircraft departed on time from Delhi and was overflying Russia when it squawked 7700 and turned around after roughly six hours of flight. The plane landed safely at the Krasnoyarsk Airport (KJA) in Russia. Air India had a similar incident in June 2023 on another Delhi-San Francisco flight, and then, the airline had a hard time organising the logistics to bring the customers to their final destination.

Air India brings passengers of AI183 over to San Francisco.

The stranded passengers of the Air India Delhi-San Francisco flight (AI183) that was diverted to Russia on July 18 were flown over to San Francisco, and they arrived after a delay of over 24 hours, arriving in San Francisco on July 20, 2024 (Saturday).

A relief aircraft, a Boeing 777-300ER registered as VT-AEQ, was flown for the sortie from Mumbai and arrived in Krasnoyarsk at approximately 8 PM local time on Friday, July 19, 2024. This was one of the ex-Etihad airframes that is now at Air India.

The flight, operating as AI1179, departed from Krasnoyarsk International Airport (KJA) at around midnight local time (July 20, 2024) for San Francisco (SFO), bringing along the  225 passengers and 19 crew members onboard AI183. The aircraft arrived in San Francisco on July 19, 2024, at 2027 hours, causing about 30 hours of delay for the passengers on board.

The airline issued a statement, which read,

Air India has mobilised additional on-ground support at SFO to carry out the clearance formalities for all passengers upon arrival. The team at SFO are prepared to provide all necessary assistance to the passengers, including but not limited to medical care, ground transportation, and onward connections in applicable cases.

*UPDATE #5: FLIGHT AI1179 TAKES OFF FOR SAN FRANCISCO FROM KRASNOYARSK*

AI1179 departed Krasnoyarsk (KJA) at 0002 Hrs local time (20 July) for San Francisco (SFO), carrying all passengers and crew of AI183 that was diverted to KJA.

Air India has mobilised additional on-ground…

— Air India (@airindia) July 19, 2024

VT-AEG, another Boeing 777-200LR stuck in San Francisco since July 16, 2024, also operated a flight back to Delhi on July 21, 2024, after being fixed up.

Air India Refunds all passengers and offers free tickets.

Following the 30-hour delay in bringing the passengers of AI183 to San Francisco, Air India announced a full refund for all passengers on board the flight. The airline will also provide a voucher for future travel with the airline. Here is the letter to the customers on board the fateful flight upon arrival in San Francisco.

 

A Great Job by Air India

Overall, this was a well-oiled effort by Air India, where they learnt from their prior experience with a similar event and choreographed the outcome better. It was not just an effort from the airline but from many other parties, including the Government of India, who helicoptered in a team on the ground from the Embassy in Moscow and AIESL, the current state-owned engineering partner of Air India responsible for maintenance of planes, who deputed a team of people to travel on board the relief flight to fix, or release the aircraft grounded at KJA to be brought back to India.

Not to mention Air India’s efforts. I’m sure a war room was created inside the airline’s headquarters, and quick updates were rolled out via social media for everyone to see. The communication was impeccable, as was the effort to ensure that extra food was being sent out, and so on.

Air India also provided a service recovery when the passengers arrived in San Francisco, not leaving it for another day. This ensured that the passengers did not have too much left to complain about, except the delay, which no one could do anything about.

Bottomline

Air India did a great job coordinating an effort to bring passengers from a diversion in Russia to the final destination, San Francisco. The airline also refunded the fares of all the passengers on board the flight and provided them with free flight vouchers for the future.

What do you think of Air India’s efforts to bring out the passengers on this diversion into Russia? I would also love to hear from any passengers on board. 

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