AI rectifies glitch in Boeing plane stranded in Magadan; aircraft departs

Air India's Boeing aircraft that was grounded in Magadan in far east Russia is now airborne after engineers rectified the oil system defect in one of the engines and the plane will land in Mumbai later in the day, the airline said on Saturday.

On June 6, AI 173 operating from Delhi to San Francisco carrying 216 passengers and 16 crew members was diverted to the port city of Magadan in far east Russia following a mid-air glitch in one of the engines of the Boeing 777-200LR aircraft.

All were stranded in the port city for two days and the replacement aircraft ferried them to San Francisco on June 8.

An Air India spokesperson on Saturday said the B777-200LR aircraft, bearing registration mark VT-ALH, that was grounded in Magadan, Russia (GDX) following the diversion of AI173 DEL-SFO on June 6, has departed GDX and is on its way to Mumbai.

"We can confirm that a defect in the oil system of one of the aircraft's engines has been rectified by our engineering team that flew on a ferry flight to GDX on June 7. The aircraft was checked on all safety parameters and certified serviceable before take off from GDX today," the spokesperson said in a statement.

According to a source, there are two pilots and eight cabin crew onboard the aircraft.

The airline had sent four engineers on the ferry flight to Magadan on June 7 and the issue of oil pressure in one of the engines of the stranded aircraft was fixed.