A charter flight headed to Nicaragua carrying 303 Indian passengers that was grounded.
In France over suspicions of human trafficking, was allowed to resume its journey on Monday, reported news agency PTI. The passengers are expected to leave today.
The flight, carrying 303 Indians, was cleared for departure, three days after it was grounded by the French authorities.
However, it is not clear where the flight would be headed. It could travel to India, where the passengers are from, to Nicaragua, its original destination, or to Dubai, from where it took off.
The French judges chose to cancel the hearings of the over 300 passengers due to irregularities in the procedure, BFM TV, a French news broadcast television and radio network, reported.
The flight, carried out by a Romanian charter company Legend Airlines, had departed from Dubai on Thursday and was headed to Nicaragua. It was grounded by authorities at the Vatry airport in France, 150 kilometres east of Paris.
The flight had landed in Vatry for refuelling. This is when police intervened, Marne prefect’s office said in an e-mailed statement.
The passengers were questioned on Sunday by four judges to verify the “conditions and purposes” of their travel, news agency AFP reported.
According to the prosecutors, the 303 passengers include 11 unaccompanied minors. Two passengers were detained to ascertain whether they “may have been different than the others in this transport, and under what conditions and with what objectives”, the prosecutors were quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, ten passengers have requested asylum.
Taking note of the development, the Indian Embassy in France said they were informed about the plane with “303 people, mostly of Indian origin, from Dubai to Nicaragua detained on a technical halt at a French airport”.
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 Marne prefect’s office earlier said.