NEW DELHI: Air India will operate a relief flight on Tuesday to bring back 228 passengers stranded in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. This comes after the airline’s San Francisco–Delhi flight was diverted on Monday due to a technical issue.The airline said the special relief flight, numbered AI183, will depart from Delhi on Tuesday afternoon and return with the affected passengers on Wednesday morning. The flight will be operated using a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.The diversion occurred after pilots on flight AI174, operating from San Francisco to Delhi via Kolkata, detected a possible technical issue mid-air and made a precautionary landing at Ulaanbaatar. The Boeing 777 aircraft carrying 245 people, including 228 passengers and 17 crew members, landed safely.“Air India will be operating a relief flight to ferry the passengers of flight AI174 (San Francisco–Delhi of November 2), which was diverted to Ulaanbaatar on Monday. The ferry flight AI183 is scheduled to depart Delhi this afternoon and return with the affected passengers on Wednesday morning,” an Air India spokesperson said.The airline added that it has been working closely with local authorities and the Indian Embassy in Mongolia to assist all passengers and crew. Arrangements for hotel accommodation, meals and regular updates have been made for those stranded.“At Air India, the safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew remain our top priority,” the spokesperson said.Air India confirmed that the diverted Boeing 777 is undergoing necessary technical checks in Ulaanbaatar. Once cleared by engineers, the aircraft will be flown back separately.This is not the first time an Air India long-haul flight has had to divert due to technical reasons. In 2023, an Air India San Francisco–Delhi flight made a precautionary landing in Magadan, Russia, after a technical issue was detected mid-air. Another diversion occurred in 2024, when a flight on the same route landed in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. In both cases, passengers were later repatriated using alternate aircraft.
