New Delhi: Indian passengers of a Virgin Atlantic flight that made an emergency landing at the Diyarbakir airport in Turkey on Wednesday have finally been shifted to hotels, after a 24-hour ordeal. The airline made arrangements for the passengers after the Indian embassy at Ankara intervened.
“Thanks to the Indian Consular Office in Turkey the passengers have moved to a hotel last night. @VirginAtlantic has still not provided a definitive plan on when they will fly home,” Preeti Sharma-Menon, a leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), posted on ‘X’.
Virgin Atlantic has said that it is working towards a resolution so that passengers can continue their journey to Mumbai.
Flight VS358 departed London’s Heathrow on Wednesday and was scheduled to land in Mumbai at 1.40 am on Thursday. However, the flight landed at Diyarbakir – a military airfield – due to a medical emergency on board.
After the landing, all passengers were asked to disembark. Airline officials said that the aircraft had suffered damages due to a ‘hard’ landing and was unfit for the flight up to Mumbai. While the crew moved to a hotel, the passengers were made to wait at the terminal.
Soon, social media was flooded with messages regarding lack of even basic amenities. Some claimed that passengers were forced to sit on the floor as there weren’t sufficient chairs. There is only one toilet for nearly 300 passengers. Food and water is also in short supply, passengers complained.
Some also said that they were unable to recharge their phones or laptops and it would soon get difficult to communicate with relatives and friends. Staff at the airport don’t know English and are rude, another passenger posted. It being a military facility, passengers are even being asked for their passports.
Virgin Atlantic initially offered to reimburse passengers if they made their own arrangements to travel to Istanbul – 1,400 km away – and took flights to India from there. There were no takers though. There are no direct flights from Diyarbakir to India.
