France has grounded a charter flight headed to Nicaragua carrying 303 Indian passengers, and a judicial investigation into the conditions and purposes of the trip has been launched, local officials in the eastern Marne region said on Friday.
The flight, carried out by Romanian charter company Legend Airlines, had departed from Dubai and landed at the small Vatry airport on Thursday afternoon for a technical stopover when police intervened, the Marne prefect’s office said. “The reception hall at Vatry airport was transformed into a waiting area with individual beds to provide passengers with the best possible reception conditions,” the prefect’s office said.
A team from the embassy has reached the passengers, the Indian Embassy in France said in a post on X. “French authorities informed us of a plane with 303 people, mostly of Indian origin, from Dubai to Nicaragua detained on a technical halt at a French airport. Embassy team has reached and obtained consular access. We are investigating the situation,” the post said.