Diverting To Countries That Require Visas

[Ryan N]

What happens when a flight had to divert to a country that require its visitors to obtain a visa? Eg: Air Canada flight from Sydney diverting to Seattle because it couldn't land in Vancouver and has to stay overnight or longer in Seattle? We know we must obtain prior authorisation before entering the US, but what about those passengers who had not planed to visit the US?

Or another scenario, a flight going to Hong Kong because of a severe typhoon closing the airport but has to divert to China for a number of days. The airline would then need to accomodate the passengers in hotels in China. We don't need a visa to visit Hong Kong but we need one for China.

[Owen H]

It depends on the country. Some are quite good at handling it, and others, describing them as a pain in the.... would be polite.

The times I've seen it involved taking down passengers details, and then retaining their passport until they leave.

[Brett o]

When a plane is diverted I believe they still have to complete immigration requirements

A good example was CX 270 that had to divert to Karaganda airport in Kazakhstan on a flight from Amsterdam to Hong Kong on the 28th November 2010.

To quote from the press release

“A Cathay Pacific spokesman said that the airline had sought visa exemptions for the passengers from the relevant local authorities. But due to immigration requirements, deplaning of the passengers had been delayed until immigration procedures had been completed.”

Hope this information helps



http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_...0007d21c39____