Air India to send replacement plane for passengers stranded in Russia

Air India said a reserve plane would leave from Mumbai on Wednesday for passengers whose flight was diverted to Russia's Far East on Tuesday after the Boeing 777 widebody aircraft faced an issue with one of its engines.

216 passengers and 16 crew who were on board the flight from Delhi to San Francisco had been moved to makeshift accommodations, given infrastructure limitations around the airport, the airline said.

The diversion had raised questions over how quickly the $200 million Boeing 777 US built plane, whose engines are made by General Electric, could be repaired amid US and European Union sanctions on exports of aviation items to Russia.

A source at the Magadan airport in Russia told Reuters that Air India engineers will arrive on the reserve plane along with the necessary spare parts.

A stranded passenger named Gagan told Indian broadcaster NDTV that there were many US citizens on the flight and that given the tensions between Russia and the United States, "there are a lot a nervous people here".

Air India did not immediately respond to a request to share the nationalities of the passengers.

US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said on Tuesday it is "likely" there are Americans onboard given its planned destination. "We are aware of a US-bound flight that had to make an emergency landing in Russia and are continuing to monitor that situation closely," Patel said.

Aggrieved passengers took to Twitter to complain about the inadequate supply of food at the building which they said looked like a school.

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