More than 200 Indians stuck in Turkey as Mumbai-bound flight makes emergency landing

A Virgin Atlantic flight from London to Mumbai made an emergency landing at Turkey's Diyarbakir Airport (DIY), leaving more than 200 Indian passengers stranded for over 16 hours, reported News18 on Thursday.

The plane, VS 358, landed at the airport unsuitable for handling the aircraft due to a medical emergency. Passengers were also told that the plane developed a technical glitch while landing, the report said.

“Emergency landing was made as one passenger had a panic attack. The airport in Turkey is not efficient enough to handle the aircraft,” the report quoted a passenger saying.

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A passenger told News18 that many remained unclear about their journey further as the Virgin Atlantic airline had not announced alternate arrangements to resume their flight.

“We have been stranded in a semi-empty terminal building without communication. We have little children, women, and a few sick people, and we have no information apart from two handouts that were shared yesterday evening. It's almost 14 hours since we landed,” another passenger told Republic.

An X user named Satyam Surana said that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis assured support, and the Ministry of Civil Aviation had appointed a nodal officer to manage the situation.

In an unrelated incident last month, Air India flight AI126 from Chicago to Delhi was forced to return to its departure point because multiple lavatories on the Boeing 777 jet became unusable. The carrier said the problem was caused by people flushing down “polythene bags, rags, and clothes.”

The aircraft cited its internal investigation based on objects found by maintenance crews who discovered the objects in the aircraft’s plumbing system and appeared to pin the blame on flyers by urging “passengers to use lavatories only for the purposes they are meant for”.

Air India also noted that while not found on this particular flight, its maintenance teams have previously discovered “blankets, innerwear, and diapers, among other waste” in aircraft toilet systems.