An Air China flight from London Heathrow to Beijing made an unscheduled landing in Siberia on Tuesday after experiencing an engine malfunction. The Boeing 777-300, carrying over 250 passengers, landed at Nizhnevartovsk airport in the Khanty-Mansi region at around 8:17am local time.
The aircraft departed London at 10:43pm on Monday and encountered engine problems over Russian airspace approximately five and a half hours into the journey. Russia's civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, confirmed the preliminary cause was a malfunction of one of the engines.
Flight CA856, which typically takes over nine hours from the UK to Beijing, was diverted to the alternate airfield. Air China is sending a reserve plane to Nizhnevartovsk to continue the journey to the Chinese capital later today.
The Foreign Office currently advises against all travel to Russia due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. It remains unclear how many British citizens were on board. The Independent has contacted Air China and the FCDO for further comment.
