With 324 Indians from coronavirus-hit Wuhan, Air India flight reaches Delhi

For an initial check, screening camps have also been set up at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport. The crew, which is also learnt to be under a seven-day lockdown, are unlikely to be allowed to meet even their families during this period.

• Written by Pranav Mukul
• New Delhi | Updated: February 1, 2020 10:08 AM IST
2 min read

Indians in the aircraft at Wuhan. (Photo: Air India)

Air India’s special flight evacuating Indian citizens from Wuhan, the Chinese city locked down due to the coronavirus outbreak, landed in Delhi at 7.26 am on Saturday. The flight, operated on a 423-seater Boeing 747 jumbo jet aircraft, brought back 324 people  — comprising 211 students, 110 working professionals, and three minors — from Wuhan to Delhi, from where they will be taken to special quarantine camps set up in Manesar.

However, for an initial check, screening camps have also been set up at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. The crew, which is also learnt to be under a seven-day lockdown, are unlikely to be allowed to meet even their families during this period. Follow Coronavirus outbreak LIVE Updates

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The Air India aircraft upon landing at Delhi on Saturday morning. (Photo: Air India)

The flight with five cockpit crew, 15 cabin crew, and a team of five doctors from Ram Manohar Lohia hospital in Delhi departed from the national capital around 12.30 pm on Friday and reached Wuhan late in the evening local time. The Indians in Wuhan, who were brought to the airport, were made to go through a medical screening process prior to them boarding the aircraft.

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Following this, the aircraft departed from Wuhan around 4 am local time on Saturday (around 1.30 am IST) and landed in Delhi six hours later.

The team of doctors and Air India crew at Wuhan airport. (Photo: Air India)

A team of Air India engineers and security personnel were also a part of the squad led by Captain Amitabh Singh, Air India’s Director of Operations, that flew to Wuhan.

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