1st AI flight from New York with 100 on board arrives

60 Passengers From Punjab, 16 From HP

Barinderjit.Saluja@timesgroup.com

Mohali:  23.05.2020

An Air India flight carrying 100 passengers from New York, USA, landed at the Chandigarh international airport on Friday under the Vande Bharat mission of the government to rescue Indian nationals stuck abroad during the outbreak of Covid-19.

People came from New Jersey, Vancouver, California, Kuala Lumpur, Buffalo, Pennsylvania, and Texas to New York to board the flight. They belonged to Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Uttarakhand.

Mohali deputy commissioner Girish Dayalan said, “The first evacuation flight from the US stopped at the Delhi airport and arrived here at 1.30pm. Passports of all passengers were taken and will be handed back after they undergo 14-day institutional quarantine.”

Of the 100 passengers, 60 belonged to Punjab — 11 from Patiala, 10 from Amritsar, seven from Ludhiana, six from Hoshiarpur, five each from Jalandhar and Mohali, four from Kapurthala, three from Ferozepur, two each from Gurdaspur and Bathinda, one each from Fatehgarh Sahib, Fazilka, Sangrur, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar and Muktsar Sahib.

Sixteen passengers were from Himachal Pradesh, 12 from Haryana,10 from Chandigarh and two from Uttarakhand. All the passengers were handed over to the teams of various districts and neighbouring states, said Dayalan. He said the next flight under the Vande Bharat mission would land at the airport from Ukraine on May 30.

Civil Surgeon Dr Manjit Singh, who led the medical team, said no passenger was suffering from fever, cough and cold. The team examined the passengers with a noncontact infrared thermometer. Dr Manjit Singh said there is no active case in Mohali, stressing the need to wear masks, maintain social distancing and wash hands frequently.

SAFE LANDING: The passengers who arrived at the Chandigarh airport were medically screened. They will be quarantined for two weeks