Passengers stranded in Siberia

There’s never a good time or place to have an airline captain tell you they need to make an emergency landing, but these passengers really had it bad. When an Air France flight from Paris to Shanghai was forced to make an emergency landing this week, 282 passengers found themselves passing three unexpected days in Siberia. Air France told AFP that the the plane diverted “to Irkutsk in Russia after an acrid smell and light smoke appeared on board.” Luckily, no one was harmed in the process.

The passengers were not dressed appropriately for the freezing Siberian climate, which sat around nine degrees Fahrenheit. They were put up at hotels for the duration of their stay, but because they didn’t have Russian visas, passengers were under constant surveillance by local police.

Although a replacement plane was supposed to come to the rescue last Monday, more technical difficulties prevented that from happening, causing the “layover” to last a little longer. Finally, a third Air France plane arrived in Irkutsk on Wednesday morning, to finally carry passengers to Shanghai.

H/T: Travel & Leisure

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