Following a medical emergency onboard on Sunday, AA292 is yet to complete its journey to New Delhi.
AA flight 292 from JFK to DEL has found itself stranded in London Heathrow (LHR) following a medical emergency and issues over landing permissions and crew working limits. The flight landed in LHR at 10:00 AM local time on Monday and remains here at the time of publication.
Statement from American Airlines Added
In a statement, American Airlines has said AA295 from London Heathrow to Delhi will operate at 07:00 AM local time on 1st June. Statement added below.
Diverted and stuck
According to The Times Of India, the trouble began on AA new route from New York to Delhi (AA292) on 29th May. The flight departed JFK at 21:40 local time, set for the 14-hour and 30-minute journey using a Boeing 777-300ER (N725AN). However, things did not go to plan, and a passenger suffered a medical emergency onboard.
The emergency forced the pilots to LHR at 09:10 AM local time, 7.5 hours into the service. This is a routine procedure and flights frequently divert to nearby airports in case a passenger onboard suffers any emergency. It seems the traveler was taken to hospital from the flight. However, for the remaining roughly 300 passengers, things have not gone smoothly.
Since landing in LHR at 10:10 AM, the plane has been stuck there. Passengers were issued 24-hour emergency visas and given hotel rooms to spend the day while waiting for a new flight, per one account. Since then, things have stalled and AA292 and its passengers remain stuck in London.
Special approval
Since American Airlines is not approved to fly from the UK to India, the carrier needed special permission from the DGCA, the aviation regulator. The DGCA allowed this one-off flight, relabeling the flight AA295 for the journey to Delhi. However, by this time crew rest requirements had kicked in, and the flight could not operate on Sunday.
In a statement to Simple Flying on Tuesday night, American Airlines said,
Flight 295 from LHR to DEL is now scheduled to depart tomorrow at 7 a.m. We apologize to our customers for this inconvenience.
Passengers are desperately waiting to return to Delhi, with dozens of elderly, infirm, and infants on the flight reportedly. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
One DGCA official indicated that the flight would be arriving on Wednesday (1st June), but passengers turned up at 05:00 AM on Tuesday only to be told the flight had been delayed repeatedly. Now, 300 passengers remain stuck at London Heathrow as American and the DGCA work out a solution.
It is unclear what the sticking point is. While some passengers took to Twitter to claim that the DGCA is requiring the flight to return to New York and then fly to Delhi, this contradicts the regulator’s guidance. Another issue might be that the DGCA requires the return flight (re-departing Delhi) also be a special charter that flies to London or without travelers.
