Stranded Virgin Atlantic passengers finally arrive in Mumbai after 40-hour ordeal in Turkey

MUMBAI: After being stranded in Turkey for about forty hours, over 260 passengers of a Virgin Atlantic flight to Mumbai, which departed from London on Wednesday, finally landed in Mumbai on Friday evening.
The passengers were stranded at Turkey’s Diyarbakır Airport after their flight was diverted due to a medical emergency, followed by a technical issue with the aircraft. The diversion occurred after a passenger experienced a panic attack, leading to an unscheduled landing and subsequent technical inspections of the aircraft.
“The plane departed Diyarbakır Airport at 1 pm local time on Friday, operating as flight VS1358. Customers are now en route to Mumbai, with an expected arrival at approximately 8.50 pm local time,” said a Virgin Atlantic spokesperson. “We’re sorry that Virgin Atlantic flight… was disrupted following an urgent medical diversion to Diyarbakır Airport in Turkey. Due to the nature of the landing, the aircraft required extensive technical inspection before the aircraft was cleared to operate,” the airline said, adding that it provided its passengers with overnight hotel accommodation on Thursday evening.
Earlier in the day on Thursday, passengers posted a video clip on social media. The clip showed a pregnant woman and a senior citizen with diabetes, among others, complaining that they had not had proper food for over 16 hours. Passengers with medical conditions such as diabetes, blood pressure, and kidney problems said they were starving for hours. “There are four babies on board; they have not been fed their food as it is in the aircraft.No crew member or airline staff has come to update us,” said a passenger.
A middle-aged woman returning to Mumbai after visiting her daughter in London spoke to TOI and said they have been at the airport for close to a day now. “We landed here at 8.30pm (IST) and since then there has been no information about our flight status. The airline provided a beverage about 14 hours after we landed here,” she alleged. She said the conditions were challenging at the airport with only one toilet for the entire plane load of passengers, one charging point for phones and only paid Wi-Fi which means passengers who cannot make online digital payments have not been in touch with their relatives for about a day now.