First AI flight carrying 219 Indian evacuees from Ukraine lands in Mumbai

By PTI

MUMBAI: The first Air India flight carrying 219 Indian evacuees from Ukraine landed on the Mumbai airport from Bucharest, Romania, on Saturday night, ATC sources stated.

Operated with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, Air India flight AI-1944 touched down the runway at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) right here at 7.50 pm, they stated.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal was on the airport to obtain the Indian nationals getting back from war-hit Ukraine on their arrival.

The Air India flight had left from Mumbai for Bucharest at 3.38 am Saturday and landed there at round 10.45 am (Indian Standard Time). It departed for Mumbai at 1.55 pm (IST).

#WATCH | Union Minister Piyush Goyal welcomes the Indian nationals safely evacuated from Ukraine at Mumbai airport pic.twitter.com/JGKReJE1ct

— ANI (@ANI) February 26, 2022

The Ukrainian airspace has been closed for civil plane operations for the reason that morning of February 24 and subsequently, the evacuation flights are working out of Bucharest and Budapest.

Indian nationals who reached the Ukraine-Romania border by highway have been taken to Bucharest by Indian authorities officers in order that they are often evacuated within the Air India flights.

Around 16,000 Indians, primarily college students, have been stranded in Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had stated on February 24.

The distance between Kyiv and the Romanian border checkpoint is roughly 600 km and it takes wherever between eight hours to 11 hours to cowl it by highway.

The Indian embassy in Ukraine on Friday stated it was working to determine evacuation routes from Romania and Hungary.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had earlier within the day stated on Twitter that AI1944 with “219 Indian nationals has taken off from Romania”.

“Regarding evacuation of Indian nationals from Ukraine, we are making progress. Our teams are working on the ground round the clock. I am personally monitoring,” he added.

Air India will function extra flights on Saturday to Bucharest and Hungarian capital Budapest to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine.

Prior to the closure of the Ukrainian airspace, Air India had operated a flight to Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on February 22 that introduced 240 individuals again. It had deliberate to function two extra flights on February 24 and February 26 however couldn’t because the Russian offensive started on February 24 and the Ukrainian airspace was consequently shut down.