AI to operate ferry flight to bring back passengers stranded in Stockholm

Air India on Thursday said it will operate a ferry flight to Stockholm to bring back passengers who were stranded after their flight from Newark was diverted to Sweden's capital on Wednesday.

The Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft from Newark to Delhi was diverted to Stockholm on Wednesday morning due to an oil leak in one of the engines.

An Air India spokesperson said the ferry flight will be operated with Boeing 777 plane that will fly out from Mumbai at around 2 pm and is expected to reach Stockholm at 11 pm (IST).

The ferry flight will take off from Stockholm at around 1 am (IST) on Friday morning and reach Delhi at about 8 am (IST), the spokesperson said.

The Newark-Delhi flight had 292 passengers, including 8 infants, 15 cabin crew members and 4 pilots. It had made an emergency landing at the Arlanda airport in Stockholm. The flight had landed safely.

In a late evening statement on Wednesday, an Air India spokesperson said the airline was in discussion with the Swedish authorities to seek approval for immigration clearance for some of the passengers who were still at the airport.

A senior official at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), on Wednesday, said the flight had an oil leak in one of the engines. Following this, the engine was shut down, and later the aircraft made an emergency landing in Stockholm, the official had said.