July 19 (Reuters) - An Air India plane flying from Delhi

to San Francisco made a precautionary landing in the Russian

region of Siberia after crew detected a potential issue in the

cargo hold area, the Indian airline said on Friday.

It was the second time in a little over a year that an Air

India flight on the same route had made an unscheduled landing

in Russia.

The Boeing 777 aircraft, carrying 225 passengers and

19 flight crew, landed safely at Krasnoyarsk International

Airport, the airline said in statement on social media platform

X, adding it was making arrangements for a replacement flight to

San Francisco.

Shortly after the incident, Russia's civil aviation agency,

Rosaviatsiya, said on the Telegram messaging app the aircraft

had taxied to a parking spot after landing and there had been no

signs of a fire or smoke onboard.

Krasnoyarsk International Airport did not immediately

respond to a Reuters request for comment. Boeing ( BA ) and a

spokesperson for the U.S. State Department deferred to Air India

for comment on the incident.

Last June, an Air India Boeing plane on the same route was

stranded for a day after reporting a technical issue. Passengers

on that flight were housed in makeshift accommodation at

Russia's remote Magadan airport.

Air India had sent an aircraft a day later to pick up those

stranded passengers.

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar and Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru,

additional reporting by Ron Popeski, Editing by Franklin Paul

and Lincoln Feast.)