260 on London-Mumbai flight stranded in Turkiye since Wednesday

NEW DELHI: Over 260 passengers of a Virgin Atlantic flight from London to Mumbai have been stranded at Turkiye's Diyarbakır airport for the past 24 hours, after the aircraft was diverted on Wednesday owing to a medical emergency, and subsequently faced a technical glitch.

"VS358 flight from Heathrow to Mumbai on April 2 was cancelled after to an urgent medical diversion to Diyarbakır, followed by technical inspections of aircraft," a Virgin Atlantic spokesman said.

Stranded flyers alleged the airline failed to arrange basic facilities. "After landing, we remained on board for five hours. Then, we were asked to alight as the airline needed to fix a technical issue," Sagar Kochhar, a passenger, told TOI over phone from Turkiye. He alleged that Virgin neither made any arrangements for passengers, nor was providing any information on when they would be able to depart for Mumbai.

The airline said it was making all efforts to ensure passengers are flown to their destination at the earliest.