Vande Bharat Mission: Moscow Bound Air India Flight Returns Empty After Pilot Tests Positive For Coronavirus

A Moscow bound flight being operated by Air India to ferry Indians stranded due to the lockdown returned empty after the pilot tested positive for coronavirus.

Air India

New Delhi: A Moscow bound flight returned empty after the pilot tested positive for coronavirus. According to reports, the special ferry flight operated by Air India is part of the Vande Bharat mission. The flight was travelling from New Delhi to Moscow, Russia but they had to come back after the ground staff realized that the pilot tested coronavirus positive. "When the A320 plane, which did not have any passengers as it was heading to Moscow to bring back stranded Indians under Vande Bharat Mission, had reached Uzbekistan''s airspace, our team on the ground realized that one of the pilots had tested COVID-positive," said senior Air India officials in a PTI report. The official also said that the flight which left Delhi at 7 AM was immediately asked to return. “The flight was immediately asked to return. It came back to Delhi at around 12.30 pm on Saturday, “said the official. The crew members of the flight have been put into quarantine and arrangements have been made for another flight to make the trip to Moscow to ferry Indians stranded there due to the pandemic. The Vande Bharat Mission is the biggest ever repatriation exercise of India which was started from May 7. The mission to ferry passengers stuck due to the lockdown in different parts of the world is being carried out by Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express. Despite various measures to ensure the safety of passengers which includes the use or the Aarogya Setu App, it seems that air services are not able to curb the infection fully. In the case of domestic airt travel which began on 25 May over 16 asymptomatic passengers tested positive for coronavirus. According to reports, low-cost airline IndiGo said that around 12 passengers so far have tested positive for coronavirus. Two passengers onboard a Spicejet flight travelling from Ahmedabad to Guwahati via Delhi on May 25 and one passenger in Air India’s Alliance Air Delhi-Ludhiana flight was also found to be infected with the coronavirus.