A special relief flight has departed from Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) to Medan International Airport on the Indonesian island of Sumatra to transport 101 passengers and crew members of SriLankan Airlines flight UL 306, which was grounded due to a technical fault. 

The national carrier said that the relief aircraft, UL302, departed from Colombo at 2:24 p.m. today to transport the passengers of UL306 from Medan to Singapore. 

The airline said it is making every effort to get them to their destination as quickly as possible.

An engineering team was also dispatched from Colombo earlier today to attend to the grounded aircraft, it said. 

SriLankan Airlines flight UL306 from Colombo to Singapore was diverted to Medan Airport, Indonesia, yesterday (5) due to a technical issue. As the aircraft required additional time for repairs, all 93 passengers and eight crew members disembarked at Medan Airport.

There was a delay in transferring passengers to hotels due to stringent immigration formalities at the Medan airport. However, the airline ensured that all passengers were taken care of until accommodation was provided, the statement said. 

SriLankan Airlines said it is deeply grateful to the staff of the Embassy of Indonesia in Colombo and the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Jakarta for their assistance in obtaining required regulatory clearances. 

“We regret the inconvenience caused to our customers by this unforeseen technical issue,” SriLankan Airlines said emphasising that the safety of passengers and crew is of the highest priority.