About 250 Indian passengers have been staying at Diyarbakir Airport in Turkey for over 30 hours since a Mumbai-bound Virgin Atlantic flight had to make an emergency landing on Wednesday morning. The flight departed from London’s Heathrow Airport and was scheduled to land in Mumbai at 1:40 AM Thursday. A medical emergency had forced the unscheduled landing at the small military airport in southeastern Turkey.
The order day deteriorated after the A350-1000 aircraft developed a technical snag following the emergency landing. It was, therefore, unable to take off, leaving passengers in the dark as to when their journey could continue. In addition to that, Diyarbakir Airport – a military base which has very poor infrastructure and facilities for passengers – does not facilitate the ordeal further.
It has been reported that the technical failure may have been the outcome of a ‘hard landing’ by the aircraft. In deboarding, passengers were allegedly confined to a restricted area in the airport and the flight crew got some hotel accommodation. A number of them have grown tired of not knowing and not having help.
Passengers stranded have talked about food, water, and other necessities of life, reflecting on how being stuck in an unknown place for weeks becomes a tough affair. Airline authorities scramble to fix the technical problems and family members at home in India anxiously wait for updates on their loved ones.
The Indian passengers are still waiting for Virgin Atlantic to confirm when they will be leaving, although that has not been provided. Seeking to underscore the need for emergency landing contingency planning at some remote airports that offer limited capabilities, the incident has drawn attention to the challenges of an emergency landing.
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