On 6 June, Air India flight 173 from New Delhi to San Francisco experienced a problem with one of its engines and diverted to Magadan, Russia. The aircraft landed safely in Magadan at 08:36 UTC, about 90 minutes after diverting off its course to San Francisco. The flight was operated by a Boeing 777-200LR registered VT-ALH. The aircraft is powered by two GE90-115B engines.
Magadan’s Sokol Airport is located 50 kilometres (31 miles) north Magadan proper in Sokol, which has a population of approximately 5,000. Due to the lack of hotels in Sokol, the 216 passengers were sheltered at a local school awaiting a second aircraft.
Air India sends rescue flight
A second Air India 777-200LR was dispatched from Mumbai to Magadan on 7 June. The flight departed Mumbai as AI195 at 09:51 UTC and arrived at 19:13 UTC. According to Air India, the rescue aircraft will carry passengers onward from Magadan to San Francisco. The airline sent all of the supplies and catering needed for the flight from Magadan to San Francisco aboard the ferry flight.
Onward
The follow on flight to San Francisco departed 7 June at 23:27 UTC, approximately 38 hours after the original flight diverted. The aircraft arrived in San Francisco at 7:07 UTC on 8 June, 56 hours after the original AI173 departed New Delhi. The average flight time between New Delhi and Sa Francisco is approximately 15 hours.
Air India’s problems just beginning
Technical issues are a common occurrence and diversions happen every day for a variety of reasons. However, diverting an aircraft to a location where sourcing replacement parts would violate multiple forms of sanctions complicates matters immensely. For instance, when a Norwegian 737-8 MAX diverted to Shiraz, Iran in December 2018, the aircraft sat on the ground in Iran for 70 days. Much of that time was spent arranging an export license for a CFM LEAP1-B engine for the stricken aircraft.
If the problem with the General Electric GE90-115B engine on Air India’s 777 requires replacing the entire engine, the situation becomes even more complicated. The GE90 is the largest in service aircraft engine in the world, with a fan diameter of 3.3 metres (128 inches). Transporting a GE90 requires an equally large aircraft, most often the Antonov An-124.
The problem is that there are only a few operators of the Antonov An-124. Antonov Airlines operates a handful of An-124s, but as a Ukrainian airline they certainly won’t be flying to Russia. Maximus Air Cargo and their single An-124 also fall into that category.
Russian cargo carrier Volga-Dnepr Airlines has a large fleet of An-124s, though only one has flown since March. Depending on where a replacement engine could be found, a Volga-Dnepr aircraft might not be able to pick it up due to restrictions on Russian aircraft operating in certain countries.
GE90 engines can be transported in other aircraft, such as a Boeing 747, if they are partially disassembled, but this introduces even further complications. Sourcing an aircraft able to carry the engine and operate to Russia remains a challenge and disassembling the engine for transport introduces the need to reassemble the engine in the field. On the receiving end, Sokol Airport does not regularly host 777 heavy maintenance. Replacing a GE90 engine on a 777 in non-standard conditions is a monumental undertaking requiring specialized tooling alongside the engine itself. When a Swiss 777 diverted to Iqaluit in 2017, it took a week—without any export restrictions to worry about—to perform the engine change.
Unfortunately for Air India, if its stricken 777 does need a new engine it doesn’t seem like it will be a speedy recovery.
Update—It was a quick fix!
Thankfully for all involved the worst case scenario laid out above did not come to pass and Air India was able to return the aircraft to India in just a matter of days. We’re awaiting news from Air India on the precise nature of the issue, but it did not require a full engine change.
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![An example full flight summary response from the Flightradar24 API: { "data": [ { "fr24_id": "0987654321", "flight": "SK1415", "callsign": "SAS1415", "operated_as": "SAS", "painted_as": "SAS", "type": "A20N", "reg": "SE-DOY", "orig_icao": "ESSA", "orig_iata": "ARN", "datetime_takeoff": "2023-01-27T05:15:22", "runway_takeoff": "12R", "dest_icao": "EKCH", "dest_iata": "CPH", "dest_icao_actual": "EPWA", "dest_iata_actual": "WAW", "datetime_landed": "2023-01-27T06:15:10", "runway_landed": "27L", "flight_time": 3600, "actual_distance": 1007.74, "circle_distance": 6245, "category": "Passenger", "hex": "4A91F9", "first_seen": "2023-01-27T05:06:22", "last_seen": "2023-01-27T06:18:10", "flight_ended": "true" } ] }](https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Flight-summary-API-cover-768x378.jpg)
