What happens if a domestic flight lands in a foreign country due to an emergency?
In a question about travel to Puerto Rico Michael Hampton writes the following:
Note also that you should bring your green card and passport if you travel to or from Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands. While this is a purely domestic flight, and it is not strictly required for you to have your passport, if the flight has an emergency it may need to divert to an airport at an island which is not part of the USA. You will need your travel documents if this happens.
Are there historical examples of this happening, either in Puerto Rico or elsewhere? Presumably most passengers on the plane will have no passports in this case and would thus be ineligible to enter under default circumstances. Is it thus recommended to take a passport if your flight goes over foreign territory?
Best Answer
A real life example of this occurred on Sept 11 2001 when hundreds of planes destined for the US were forced to land in other countries, mainly Canada. While almost all would have had passports, many would not have had permission to enter Canada.
The procedure was that each entrant was processed by officials, details were taken and each given emergency permission to enter. In a genuine emergency it would seem likely that a similar procedure would be followed. It would be very unlikely that person wishing to enter a country illegally would happen to be on a flight that was diverted there.
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What happens if you declare an emergency in flight?
Once a pilot has declared an emergency, a chain of events is initiated by ATC. If necessary, controllers will assist the pilot in finding a suitable airport for landing, and begin coordinating with the control facility for that airport.Can a plane land itself in an emergency?
Many autopilot systems are capable of landing the airplane. This is usually the case in very low-visibility conditions.How do you declare an emergency flight?
A pilot who encounters a Distress condition should declare an emergency by beginning the initial communication with the word \u201cMayday,\u201d preferably repeated three times. For an Urgency condition, the word \u201cPan\u2010Pan\u201d should be used in the same manner.How fast can a plane land in an emergency?
32,000 ft down to 10,000 ft is 22,000 feet. 22,000/5min = 4,400 ft/min, that's a pretty good ear popping descent rate.Federal investigators to look into plane's emergency landing, fire at Miami International Airport
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Answer 2
Good summary from https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k13222947-o10-Plane_diverted_visa_question-Air_Travel.html:
Depends on circumstances, the duration of stay, the infrastructure of the airport and the flexibility and availability of immigration.
Worst case: passenger will stay in a separate room at the airport.
Best case: the receive a visa (eg. transit visa) or a solution is find to let the passenger temporary into the country.
The same link contains a few people sharing their experience, e.g.:
I encountered the overnight situation once before. All the passengers were put up in a hotel near the airport. Those of us with permission to enter the country went through normal immigration and got on the hotel bus. The others were escorted as a group to the bus but their passports were taken and held till the next day (not sure who actually had the passports, hotel, airline, authorities). Those of us who had passports could go outside the hotel, those without were not allowed out.
Answer 3
The case I am about to write is not regarding a domestic flight - but still I will write my two-cents.
Basically @Franck-Demoncourt 's answer sums up the answer and some scenarios, one of them is titled as : worst-case.
I would like to offer even a worse one, where a certain plane of a certain country actually lands for some reason in a third-party country which is friendly to the Airplane's origin country but hostile to some of the passenger's Country and passport.
This is not just a theoretical situation as it happened to one of my colleagues.
In such a case, to my understanding - the world conventions state that the Crew of the plane ( basically - the pilot / captain ) must offer the affected passengers the option to stay on the plane and the captain / pilot ( highest grade officer in charge ) also have the obligation to stay with them if the passengers choose so in order to offer protection ( the plane itself is considered a territory of the plane's origin country )
As said before - this is not directly an answer to the question that is about domestic flights and lack of passports - but still I thought it is a good chance to give this example also in order for people to know that:
- A this can happen.
- B What to do in this situation as regarding to your rights as a passenger.
P.S
I will try to find reference for the convention mentioned or the rules implied and I will post if I can find them. If anyone else have the source for these - please feel free to post / edit this answer..
Answer 4
Here is a real example from 2 years ago.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/world/europe/air-france-flight-siberia.html
Air France Paris -> Shanghai emergency landed in Irkutsk. The Russians were accommodating but the rescue plane sent from France broke again because of freezing hydraulics, requiring another one from China. The passengers were not allowed to exit the airport and were stuck in Siberia, during winter, for 3 days.
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