Mangaluru family stranded in Azerbaijan as flight to India diverted amid operation Sindoor

MANGALURU: A family holiday turned into an unexpected ordeal for a group of Mangalureana including two brothers, who are currently stranded at Baku's Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Azerbaijan. The group was scheduled to return to India on Tuesday via an Azerbaijan Airlines flight to Mumbai.

According to Aloysius D'Silva, one of the stranded individuals, their flight was initially delayed by two hours.

After finally taking off, the aircraft flew for approximately 3.5 hours before the captain made an emergency announcement.

Passengers were informed that the flight would not proceed to its scheduled destination of Mumbai but would be returning to Baku due to "Operation Sindoor," reportedly conducted by India on terror bases in Pakistan. The flight, which was meant to fly over Pakistani airspace, subsequently returned to Aliyev airport.

D'Silva, resident of Kulshekar in city, who travelled to Azerbaijan with five other family members on April 30, told TOI over the phone that the flight carried around 150 passengers, mainly Indian tourists from various parts of the country.

"We are now stuck at the Aliyev airport," D'Silva said. He further added that they are actively exploring alternative routes to reach their hometown. "We are checking alternative routes to reach India either from Qatar or UAE," he explained.