NEW DELHI: A Gulf Air flight carrying around 60 Indian passengers, which had been stranded after a technical issue diverted it to Kuwait, finally departed for Manchester on Monday. The flight, originally scheduled from Mumbai to Manchester, took off from Kuwait International Airport at 4:34 am local time, after more than 24 hours of uncertainty.
In a post on X, the Indian embassy in Kuwait confirmed the flight’s departure, saying, “Gulf Air flight to Manchester finally departed at 0434 hours today, carrying stranded Indian passengers among others. The Embassy team was on the ground until the flight departed.”
The ordeal began on December 1, when Gulf Air flight GF5, which had taken off from Bahrain at 2:05 am, was en route to Manchester. However, a technical malfunction forced the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to make an emergency landing in Kuwait at 4:01 am (local time), instead of continuing on its original path.
What followed was a difficult situation for the Indian passengers, who were bound for the UK via a one-stop flight through Bahrain. While travelers from other nationalities were allowed to leave the airport under Kuwait’s visa-on-arrival policy, the Indian passengers were stranded. To make matters worse, a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Kuwait meant the airport hotel was unavailable, and the embassy had to arrange temporary accommodation in the airport lounge for the passengers.
The situation only began to resolve after more than a day of waiting, with the Gulf Air flight eventually resuming its journey to Manchester.
