Air France flight diverted to Ashgabat leaves passengers stranded 21 hours

Businessinsider reports that Air France's Flight 191 from Bengaluru to Paris diverted to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, and passengers were stranded there for about 21 hours before a spare plane collected them. Monday's Flight 191 was already running 21 hours late when it departed Bengaluru shortly after 11 p.m., according to data from Flightradar24; it had been due to land in Paris about 10 hours later.

Four hours into the journey the Boeing 777 (registered F-GSPI, 26 years old) began descending and turned back to land in Ashgabat. The cause of the diversion has not been confirmed, though The Independent reported that the plane suffered an engine issue, and Air France did not respond to a request for comment, the report said.

Given the flight's origin, a number of Indian nationals were on board and were hosted by India's consulate in Turkmenistan, while it is unclear where the majority of passengers stayed during their time in Ashgabat. Flight-tracking data shows another Air France Boeing 777 left Paris on Tuesday morning and arrived in Ashgabat after a five-hour flight; it spent about three hours on the ground before departing shortly after 1 a.m., nearly 22 hours after passengers first arrived.

Key Topics

World, Air France, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Bengaluru, Indian Consulate