Air India 777 DEL-SFO diverts to Russia

[WHBM]

I was surprised to learn that the Indian government has a consular office in Vladivostok.

[Lake1952]

VT-ALH arrived back in BOM yesterday, June 10. It is scheduled for a revenue flight to DEL at 0700 local on June 12.

It would appear that the engine was repaired and did not need replacement.

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by DaveReidUK

AI173 either overflies Russia, or goes nowhere near it (depending presumably on winds). It's naive to expect that the majority of passengers will be aware of that.

Notably the relief aircraft departed India heading even more westerly than the original flight. The logical great circle route Mumbai to Magadan is just straight across China, but they headed north-west over Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, then turning easterly over Russia. The failed aircraft came back the same dogleg way. It seems an issue here is not transit of Russian airspace, but of Chinese.