An extended trip is usually considered a win. Not when it is due to a damaged plane, however.
Passengers heading to Shanghai were forced to make an emergency landing in Siberia, leaving travelers stranded for three days. The plane suffered some technical issues, needing a replacement aircraft. “The crew of AF116 on a Boeing 777 from Paris to Shanghai decided to divert to Irkutsk in Russia after an acrid smell and light smoke appeared on board,” the carrier told wire service Agence France-Presse.
What was supposed to be a routine fixer-upper turned into something more. Once engineers realized this wasn’t a simple fix, a second Boeing plane from Paris was called in to pick up the confused passengers. With 282 passengers staying at a nearby hotel, they were relieved upon learning the new plane was on the way, but the drama continued when that plane broke down due to the system freezing.
This comes two weeks after 250 passengers on a British Airways flight from London found themselves stuck in Orlando for three days. The plane was grounded due to some mechanical issues and travelers had to wait three days for a rescue plane from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Things got worse as temperatures started to reach negative degrees. Certain passengers weren’t allowed to pick up their luggage and had to be escorted by police officers everywhere they went. This 11-hour flight turned into four days of chaos. Finally, the third plane arrived, taking off safely and getting passengers to Shanghai without incident.
Word of the incident went viral quickly due to some social media managers for Louis Vuitton being on board. They made light of their situation by creating a six-second YouTube video pretending to be the opening credits of an imaginary TV series called “Stuck in Siberia.”
