Crew’s COVID Test Incomplete: Vande Bharat’s Maiden Mission To Bring Indians Fails To Take Off

NEW DELHI: The Central Government’s ‘Vande Bharat’ mission to bring stranded Indians from abroad failed to take off on Wednesday simply because the COVID-19 test of the crew of Air India’s flights could not be completed on time.

Air India’ first fight was scheduled to take off from Mumbai to London at 3.30 am, the officials said. “The flight to London has been rescheduled at 6.30 am on Friday and the flight to San Francisco will leave at 3.30 am on Friday,” the officials added.

Both the flights were cancelled on the day as COVID-19 tests for pilots and cabin crew members could not be done on time, they said. However, The national carrier’s flight to Singapore will leave Delhi at 11.15 pm on Thursday as per schedule.

“Delhi-Singapore flight will now be the first flight under the Vande Bharat mission instead of the Delhi-San Francisco flight,” they said. Other flights, which were scheduled for Thursday, have also been postponed to Friday.

Air India will operate 64 repatriation flights between May 7 and May 13 to bring approximately 15,000 Indians from 12 countries amid the lockdown as per the announcement of Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

All scheduled commercial passenger flights have been suspended for the lockdown. But, cargo flights, medical evacuation flights and special flights have been permitted by the DGCA to operate.