More than 250 passengers on a Virgin Atlantic flight from London to Mumbai have been stranded at a remote military airport in Turkey for nearly 40 hours, sparking distress calls on social media.
The passengers have called out the airline for keeping them in “inhumane” and “awful” situations for two days at an airport with limited facilities and without adequate food and essential supplies.
Virgin Atlantic flight VS358 departed London’s Heathrow airport at 11.40am BST on 2 April and was scheduled to land in Mumbai at 8.10pm BST.
However, the plane made an unscheduled landing at the Diyarbakır airport in Turkey at around 5pm BST due to a medical emergency onboard.
“The VS358 flight from London Heathrow to Mumbai on 2nd April was cancelled due to an urgent medical diversion to Diyarbakir airport in Turkey and subsequent technical inspections required,” Virgin Atlantic said.
“The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our top priority and we apologise for the inconvenience caused.”
After the emergency landing, the Airbus A350-1000 aircraft encountered a technical issue as it had made a “hard landing” and was deemed unfit to fly.
The passengers stranded at the airport said they were not given any information about completing their journey to India.
The airline said the flight would resume its onward journey to Mumbai from Diyarbakır at 10am BST on Friday.
“With the necessary technical approvals now in place, we will continue flight VS1358 from Diyarbakır Airport at approximately 12:00 local time on Friday 4th April, arriving in Mumbai at approximately 20:30 local,” it said.
Many passengers expressed frustration and distress over the situation on social media and said they were being confined to a restricted area of the airport with limited facilities.
“My family along with 250+ passengers have been inhumanely treated by @virginatlantic,” a passenger named Hanuman Dass said on X.
“It’s now been 30 hours since @VirginAtlantic flight left London and we are appalled at the lack of humanity and treatment of #Indian and #British citizens. My wife and kids have one pillow between 3 people and no blankets and have been sat in a confined space with 300 people.”
Another passenger said there was just one toilet for hundreds of people, no adequate food and no supplies like blankets or pillows.
Preeti Sharma Menon, a politician from Mumbai who was on the flight, said there were pregnant women and elderly people among the stranded passengers.
“It’s been 24 hours and not a single airline representative has met the passengers,” she said. “They have barely any food, one toilet amongst 275 pax, phones running out of batteries as they don’t have Turkish adapters. There are babies, pregnant women, diabetics and old people in this ordeal.”
Later, on Thursday night, she said they were being moved to a hotel.
Virgin said “the majority of our customers were provided with overnight hotel accommodation ahead of their onward journey today”.
“We’d like to sincerely apologise for the delay and any inconvenience caused.”
The Indian embassy in Turkey said it was in touch with the airline, the Diyarbakir airport directorate and the Turkish foreign ministry.
“Through the mission’s coordination, appropriate care is being extended to the passengers,” the embassy said on X. “We are in discussion with the related authorities for the early resolution of the issue and the arrangement of an alternate flight to Mumbai for the stranded passengers.”
