A UK-bound flight has been forced to land in Russia on Wednesday evening due to “technical” issues, the airline said.

An Air India flight intended for Birmingham had departed from Delhi but had to stop at the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow after suffering aircraft issues on Wednesday evening.

More than 250 people – including 258 passengers and 17 crew members – were aboard the flight that landed in Moscow at approximately 7.35pm BST (9.35pm local time).

The airport said in a statement: “The aircraft’s crew requested an unscheduled landing at Sheremetyevo Airport due to technical problems.

“Airport services promptly responded to the crew’s request and prepared to receive the aircraft according to the applicable emergency plan.

“The foreign crew received full assistance from the Russian airport and specialists under the applicable international convention.”

It is the second Air Inda flight to have to make an emergency landing in the country this year, after a flight destined for San Francisco had to land in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk airport in July over a potential issue in the hold in July.

Air India is one of around 20 airlines that still operates routes over Russia.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has warned travellers against all travel to the country.

The incident comes as another unwanted headline for the airline manufacturer after several high profile incident sin recent months.

In May a landing gear failure on a Boeing plane caused it to smash into the runway on landing and in July, an engineer was killed after being sucked into an aircraft’s propellers 

Recently, NASA astronauts have expressed their concerns over strange noises emitted by the Boeing Starliner, currently docked at the International Space Station (ISS).

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