Plane with more than 300 passengers, mostly Indians, from France to land at Mumbai airport

Mumbai/Paris, Dec 25 (PTI) A plane carrying more than 300 passengers, mostly Indians, is expected to land at Mumbai airport on Monday afternoon, three days after it was detained by French authorities over suspected human trafficking, a source said.

The A340 aircraft, being operated by Romania’s Legend Airlines, is expected to land at Mumbai airport around 2.20 pm. The plane has taken off from the airport at Vatry near Paris where it was grounded, the source said.

The Nicaragua-bound flight that had taken off from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates with 303 passengers was grounded at Vatry airport, 150 kilometres east of Paris, on Thursday over suspected “human trafficking”.

On Sunday, four French judges questioned the detained passengers.

The hearings were conducted as part of the investigation opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office on the suspicion of human trafficking.

According to the French media, some of the passengers spoke Hindi and the others Tamil.

After authorising the plane to leave, the French judges on Sunday chose to cancel the hearings of the passengers due to irregularities in the procedure.

The plane includes 11 unaccompanied minors. Two passengers in custody since Friday had their detention extended on Saturday evening for up to 48 hours, according to French prosecutors.