Air India announced additional flights between June 4 and 6 to bring back Indians stranded abroad amid the coronavirus pandemic. The flights will evacuate Indians from the US, UK, Germany, South Korea, New Zealand, and Sweden.
“Additional flights announced by @airindiain under Mission Vande Bharat. Delhi to Auckland on June 4. Delhi to Chicago & Stockholm on June 5. Delhi to New York, Frankfurt & Seoul on June 6. Mumbai to London & Newark on June 6,” Union Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted.
He said that bookings for the flights would start from 11 am on May 30. The Centre started the Vande Bharat Mission on May 7 to bring back stranded Indians from abroad.
In Phase 1 between May 7 and 16, over 16,000 people were brought back. In Phase II from May 17 to June 13, Air India flights are scheduled to operate from 60 countries.
A special ferry flight of national carrier Air India which took off from Delhi for Moscow on Saturday returned after a crew member was found Covid-19 positive. The flight being operated under the Vande Bharat mission was halfway over Central Asia when it was called back.
According to sources, the airline’s medical staff overseeing the massive testing campaign of its crew, mistook the pilot’s test report as ‘Negative’ while he had tested ‘Positive’ for Covid-19. Subsequently, the aircraft was informed and the SoPs meant for such situations were immediately implemented.
The incident has been termed as “unfortunate” by many industry insiders, as AI has been instrumental in carrying out Covid-19 evacuation operations for around 5 months now. The airline is well conversant with safety protocols which mandate Covid-19 testing of the crew before and after a flight.
“Prioritising safety protocol, Air India has recalled its Delhi-Moscow repatriation ferry flight today as one of the pilots, who had recently tested positive, was inadvertently rostered for the flight due to genuine oversight,” another source told IANS.
“Another aircraft will shortly leave for Moscow.”Consequent to the incident, the regulator, DGCA, has ordered a probe into the matter.
The probe is said to look at the lapses which occurred while implementing the SoPs meant for mounting flights.
As many as 155 Indians deported by Kuwait landed in Guwahati in Assam on Friday and would be quarantined, officials said. According to health and security officials, 52 deportees are from Tripura and 103 from Assam. Swab samples of all the returnees would be tested and they would remain in mandatory quarantine.
“Under the Vande Bharat Mission for northeast India, a Jazeera Airways flight with 155 deportees arrived at the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati on Friday evening,” an official of the Airport Authority of India said.
An Assam government health official in Guwahati said that the deportees would be quarantined and legal proceedings and formalities would start thereafter.
In Agartala, Tripura Education and Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath said that the Tripura deportees left for the state capital in two buses and their swab samples would be tested before sending them to a quarantine centre soon after their arrival in the city.
Quoting an External Affairs Ministry communication, Nath said that all the deportees were in Kuwaiti jails for violation of that country’s laws.
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