Mumbai-Newark Air India flight diverted to Kazakhstan after fire alarm goes off

An Air India flight carrying over 300 people from Mumbai to Newark was diverted to Kazakhstan on Thursday after detection of fumes in the cargo hold that triggered a fire alarm. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said all passengers are safe and that there was no reason for worry while a relief aircraft is already on the way from New Delhi to ferry the stranded passengers to Newark.

The Boeing 777-300 ER plane had landed at the Aktobe international airport in Kazakhstan at around 0800 hours after "some alarm went off" while it was on its way to Newark. An Air India spokesperson said the flight was diverted due to technical reasons. There was some alarm that went off and the engineers are inspecting the flight, he added.

An airline source said that fire alarm was set off after fumes were detected from the cargo hold of the plane. "The fumes were possibly from some perishable items that might have been treated with chemicals," the source added. 

Since the fire extinguisher is being used in the "slow mode", it would take quite sometime before the aircraft is declared as again fit to be airborne. Hence, a relief aircraft is being dispatched, the source said. In a tweet, the airline said the flight has been diverted on account of operational reasons and that all passengers are being taken care of. A relief aircraft has left from New Delhi to Aktobe to ferry the stranded passengers to Newark. Generally, Boeing 777-300 ER has a seating capacity of around 350 people.​

AI191 diverted to Kazakhstan - Our Ambassador Shri Harsh K Jain has informed me that all passengers are safe.There is no reason for worry./1

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 25, 2016

The relief plane will land there shortly and take all passengers for onward journey. All those who tweeted in this regard pl rest assured./2

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) August 25, 2016

Air India tweeted: 

#AIUpdate: #AI CMD, Mr Lohani spoke to Capt.Aroob. The pax are satisfied and happy that the flt safely landed in #Kazakhstan 3/3

— Air India (@airindiain) August 25, 2016