Passengers from France to be quizzed on landing in Mumbai

MUMBAI: The charter plane grounded in France for suspected human trafficking took off Monday afternoon and is expected to land in Mumbai Tuesday morning, sources said.

The Airbus A340 flight departed Vatry airport in northeast France at 4.30 pm (IST), said sources. Though the flying time to Mumbai is about nine hours, the aircraft was not likely to fly direct to Mumbai but would do a halt in Fujairah, UAE, at around 6 am IST on Tuesday and thereafter depart for Mumbai. Why the plane was to halt in Fujairah - if it was a technical halt or one for fuel - was not clear at the time of going to press.

The plane was expected to take off much earlier on Monday, but its departure was delayed as some of the passengers did not want to return to India. Media reports said they preferred to continue to Nicaragua as planned.

The airline lawyer said the situation was "confusing" for a while. According to some reports, nearly four dozen passengers had filed asylum applications.

Sources said the passengers were from different states in India and once they land in Mumbai, they will be questioned by immigration authorities in Mumbai. "Their first port of call will be Mumbai. When and how they will be put on domestic flights bound for their home states is not known," said a source.

Last Thursday, the flight, from UAE to Nicaragua in central America, was grounded at Vatry airport, and on Sunday, the French authorities permitted the aircraft to leave France.

On Sunday, the Vatry airport was turned into a makeshift courtroom, and four French judges questioned the detained passengers. The hearings were conducted as part of the investigation opened by the Paris prosecutor's office on suspicion of human trafficking. According to the French media, some of the passengers spoke Hindi and others Tamil. The passengers included a 21-month-old child and 11 unaccompanied minors.

After authorising the plane to leave, the French judges on Sunday chose to cancel the hearings of the passengers due to irregularities in procedure. Denying any role in the alleged trafficking, the lawyer said the airline will continue to be "available to investigators" and "will seek damages from its client because it has suffered significant harm."

A "partner" company that chartered the plane was responsible for verifying the identity documents of every passenger and had communicated the passengers' passport information to the airline 48 hours before the flight, Bakayoko said.

According to reports, the travel may have been planned by the Indian passengers to reach Central America from where they could attempt to enter US or Canada illegally.