The airplane with around 300 Indian passengers on board detained near Paris over suspicions of human trafficking landed in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday (Dec 26) at 4 am.
“The plane, which had been grounded since Thursday, departed shortly after 14:30 pm (local time),” BFM TV, a French news broadcast television and radio network, reported.
However, of the 303 Indian passengers, only 276 are expected to return, while the rest have applied for asylum and have been transferred to a special zone in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport for asylum-seekers.
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The flight that took off from Dubai, UAE, carrying 303 passengers, and was headed to Nicaragua, was grounded at the Vatry airport, 150 km east of Paris, on Thursday (Dec 21).
#WATCH | Maharashtra | Plane with Indian passengers that was grounded in France for four days over suspected human trafficking arrived in Mumbai, earlier today
(Outside visuals from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport) pic.twitter.com/OIMPO0c4Hx
— ANI (@ANI) December 26, 2023
The French authorities on Sunday gave a go-ahead to the Airbus A340 to resume its journey after questioning the passengers for two days.
The local prefecture, on Monday, confirmed that the plane would indeed take off “but not before noon”.
As per the Marne prefecture, the plane had 276 passengers on board. Out of those 25, including two minors, applied for asylum and were still on French soil.
Two others were brought before a judge on Monday and were released and placed on assisted witness status, news agency PTI reported citing BFM TV reports.
Earlier, the airplane was scheduled to depart around 10 in the morning.
However, because some people expressed their wish to stay on French soil and did not want to go back to their country of origin, the departure was delayed, according to local media reports.
The Indian Embassy in France took to their official X handle and in a posting said that they were working with embassy officials in order to ensure the safe and smooth return of the passengers.
“Thank French Gov and Vatry Airport for the quick resolution of the situation enabling Indian passengers to return home & hospitality. Also for working closely with the embassy team, present throughout the site to ensure the welfare and smooth & safe return. Thank agencies in India, too,” the Indian Embassy in France said in a post on X.
Thank French Gov and Vatry Airport for quick resolution of the situation enabling Indian passengers to return home & hospitality.
Also for working closely with embassy team, present throughout at the site to ensure welfare and smooth & safe return.
Thank agencies in India, too.
— India in France (@IndiaembFrance) December 25, 2023
As per news agency PTI reports, the plane is expected to first land in the United Arab Emirates and then proceed to Mumbai.
Airline’s lawyer, Liliana Bakayoko, while talking to BFMTV said that earlier the situation was very confusing as some passengers had refused to return to their country of origin.
“Some of the passengers would be unhappy with this return because they wanted to continue their journey to Nicaragua as planned,” the French news broadcast television and radio network reported.
“We are very relieved. We were impatiently waiting for this,” the lawyer for the airline was quoted as saying by the channel.
The lawyer added that the company will continue to be “available to investigators”, and “will seek damages from its client because it has suffered significant harm”.
(With inputs from agencies)
