Vande Bharat Mission: 288 people stranded in USA, UAE land in Hyderabad

As many as 288 people stranded in the USA and UAE arrived at the international airport on board two Air India flights on Monday as part of the off-shore evacuation drive of Indian Citizens under the Vande Bharat Mission during the COVID-19 lockdown.

While 118 people returned from San Francisco in the US, the other 170 came from Abu Dhabi, sources at the GMR-led Rajiv Gandhi International Airport said. Air India flight AI 1617 from San Francisco via Mumbai landed in the morning while the AI 1920 at 8.50 pm, they said.

To facilitate the arriving passengers and aircraft crew, the airport has kept the international arrivals and the entire stretch right from aerobridge to arrivals ramp fully sanitised and fumigated. The airport also enforced the social distancing among passengers right from the aerobridge to across the terminal, the sources added.

All arriving passengers and aircraft crew were brought out from the aircraft in a batch of 20-25 people each. Each passenger or crew member was screened by the thermal cameras positioned at the aerobridge exit under supervision of the Airport Health officials (APHO) as per the directives of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare prior to Immigration formalities. After the health screening of passengers, CISF personnel in their protective gears escorted the group of passengers to immigration clearance, they said.