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The Nicaragua-bound flight with over 300 passengers, most of whom were Indians, has now landed in Mumbai. The Romanian flight carrying 276 Indian passengers landed in Mumbai on Tuesday morning.
On Sunday, the flight that was detained by the French authorities over suspicions of human trafficking, was allowed to take off. The flight then took off on Monday after 2:30 pm (local time) and landed in Mumbai around 4 am on Tuesday.
The flight, operated by Romanian company Legend Airlines, was grounded by the French authorities for four days. Of the 300 passengers on-board, 25 had decided to stay back in France.
As per reports, the flight was expected to take off on Monday morning but the departure was delayed as some of the passengers did not want to return to India. Twenty-five passengers, including two minors, stayed back in France and applied for asylum. As per local media, two others were brought before a judge and were released to be placed on assisted witness status. The two men were taken into custody last week on suspicion of having played a role in what was believed to be an illegal immigration ring.
The Nicaragua-bound flight had taken off from Dubai with 303 passengers, and was detained at Vatry airport in France over suspected human trafficking. The list of passengers included 11 unaccompanied minors and a 21-month-old child.
It was suspected that the Indian passengers planned to reach Central America from where they could attempt to enter the US or Canada illegally. But the flight was grounded after an anonymous tip indicated that the passengers were likely to be victims of human trafficking by an organised gang.
The airline has denied any involvement in human trafficking. It said the partner company was responsible for verifying the identity documents of the passengers and communicating their passport information 48 hours prior to the flight.
The Indian Embassy in France thanked the French authorities for its quick resolution and allowing the passengers to fly back home.
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