2023-12-25 16:03:22
The plane which was carrying 303 Indian passengers, and which had been immobilized since Thursday at the small Vatry airport (Marne), was finally able to leave this Monday at the start of the afternoon. He must head to Bombay, the airline’s lawyer, Legend Airlines, had earlier clarified. “We obtained flight authorization from the Indian authorities this morning but we are still waiting for the time slot,” indicated Liliana Bakayoko.
The first passengers had started to pass through the boarding gate on Monday, the lawyer and the prefecture said. Authorizations were obtained by the company for 301 of the 303 passengers on the flight, “except for the two people placed in police custody,” said Liliana Bakayoko. They are presented before a judge for indictment.
Several asylum requests
However, not everyone was likely to board the plane, since the asylum seekers, 12 of them late Sunday afternoon according to a source close to the matter, would have to be transferred to another waiting area. Among these asylum seekers are five of the eleven unaccompanied minors (UMAs) passengers on the flight, indicated the Marne Educational Support Association, appointed ad hoc administrator for these minors.
The Airbus A340 of the small Romanian company Legend Airlines was initially only scheduled to make a one-hour technical stopover at Vatry, time to refuel on its route from Dubai (United Arab Emirates) to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. But he was detained there following an “anonymous report” according to which passengers were “likely to be victims of human trafficking” in an organized gang, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Friday.
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