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Key points
- Air India is operating multiple flights daily to evacuate stranded Indian citizens in other countries
- The pilots tested positive 72 hours before their flight duties.
New Delhi: At least five pilots, an engineer, and an Air India technician tested positive for coronavirus or COVID-19 on Sunday. All the individuals, based in Mumbai, are currently asymptomatic and have been advised by quarantine in the home by health authorities.
The infection was reportedly detected after 77 airline pilots underwent coronavirus tests yesterday as a priority.
The affected pilots have been operating Boeing 787 Dreamliners to Guangzhou, China and the last flight that any of them operated was on April 20.
Detection of the deadly virus in pilots has reportedly made other Air India pilots, currently on the list to operate repatriation flights, anxious.
Air India has been operating cargo flights to foreign countries since the blockade began. The national airline has operated medical cargo flights to Shanghai and Hong Kong, and recently a couple of Boeing 787 flights from Delhi to Guangzhou.
The national carrier currently transports stranded Indian citizens from various countries under the central government’s Vande Bharat mission.
The important evacuation exercise began from May 7 and will continue until May 13. During this period, Air India will operate 64 flights to repatriate some 15,000 Indians. Reportedly more than 1,90,000 Indian citizens have registered for the flights back home.
Some 200 Indian citizens stranded in the United States due to a coronavirus pandemic will return to India from San Francisco today via a special Air India flight under the Vande Bharat Mission.
It should be noted that around 25,000 Indians have registered with the country’s mission in the United States for repatriation flights.
