18 hours & counting: 265 passengers of Virgin Atlantic London-Mumbai flight stuck in Turkey

NEW DELHI: Over 260 passengers of Wednesday's Virgin Atlantic London-Mumbai flight are stranded at Turkey's Diyarbakır Airport for the last 18 hours and counting. The flight had to be diverted due to a medical emergency and then reportedly had a technical issue.

"When we landed, first we remained onboard the aircraft for five hours. Then we were asked to alight as the airline needed to fix a technical issue on the plane. We have now been at the airport for 13 hours with Virgin Atlantic neither making any arrangements for us nor giving us any information on when we will leave for Mumbai," and then some passengers told TOI on the phone from there that the aircraft developed a snag," Sagar Kochhar, one of the stranded passengers, told TOI on the phone from Turkey.

Other flyers said Virgin Atlantic has asked passengers to make alternate arrangements if they can. "This is not Istanbul. How we make any arrangements, the airline is supposed to do so. We are sleeping on the floor, on chairs and the food being given is simply inedible," said another passenger.

A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said: "VS358 flight from London Heathrow to Mumbai on April 2 was cancelled due to an urgent medical diversion to Diyarbakır Airport in Turkey and subsequent technical inspections required. The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our top priority and we apologise for the inconvenience caused. We are urgently looking at all available options to ensure our customers can continue their journeys to Mumbai as quickly as possible, while our engineers carry out the necessary technical inspections of the aircraft. As soon as we have updated information, we will communicate to all customers involved.”