‘Ladies and gentlemen, we will be diverting to Siberia’

No matter the destination, always assume your flight could touch down somewhere unexpected

- Simon Calder

My advice to a pal, Pete, planning a trip to east Asia, was unequivocal: “Fly on one of the Chinese airlines: cheaper, quicker and less damaging for the environment.

” Twenty-four hours earlier, I had told reader Bill White that China Southern was the optimum carrier for a trip to the most distant big city from the UK, Christchurch in New Zealand. “That’s the one I would take,” I added.

In between, Air China flight 856 from London Heathrow to Beijing had touched down at the northern Siberian city of Nizhnevartovsk. The Boeing 777 is a notable nightly departure from Heathrow: it is the last passenger plane of the day scheduled to take off from the UK’s busiest airport.

In the early hours of yesterday morning, though, it encountered engine trouble en route to Beijing. At the time the plane was over northern Siberia. This is normal for the flight: the most direct route from London to the Chinese capital involves flying initially northeast over the Baltic to St Petersburg, then continuing in a broad arc over Siberia until the Mongolian border. Almost all the time this works just fine - but when you need to divert to the nearest suitable airport, you wind up in places like Nizhnevartovsk.