A Polar Air Cargo Boeing 747-400, registration N450PA performing freight flight PO-717 (dep Mar 13th) from Los Angeles,CA (USA) to Tokyo Narita (Japan), was enroute at FL380 about 230nm southeast of Petropavlovsk (Russia) when the crew descended the aircraft to FL250, declared emergency and diverted to Petropavlovsk. Due to weather the aircraft could not land in Petropavlovsk (like four other domestic Russian flights) and entered a hold for about 20 minutes. The aircraft subsequently diverted to Shemya,AK (USA) where the aircraft landed safely about 2.5 hours after leaving FL380 and about 90 minutes after exiting the hold near Petropavlovsk.

A local Russian media reported according to preliminary data the Boeing attempted to divert to Petropavlovsk due to a fire on board.

Russian aviation fora report the aircraft attempted to divert to Petropavlovsk reporting "something like a fire".

Russia's news agency TASS reported four domestic flights could not land in Petropavlovsk and diverted due to a "Pacific Cyclone" with heavy snow fall and winds of up to 40 knots affected the southern part of Kamchatka (including Petropavlovsk). The agency later reported the crew received a fire indication on board and could not land in Petropavlovsk, too, and diverted to Shemya.

The aircraft remained on the ground in Shemya for about 26.5 hours, then continued the flight to Tokyo and continued service.