Air India relief flight carrying engineers to leave for Russia in afternoon

An Air India relief flight with engineers will leave for Magadan in Russia at 1 p.m to rectify the engine snag in its Boeing 777 aircraft that was diverted on Tuesday.

Originally, the relief flight was supposed to leave from Mumbai last night. However, it was pushed to the early hours of Wednesday. The departure was postponed again and is now scheduled for afternoon.

A source said it has taken longer to secure all overflying and landing clearances for the relief flight.

The airline also took approval from its insurers for the flights to and from Magadan which will ferry 216 stranded passengers.