The pilots and cabin crew were provided training in all the steps on donning and doffing of Personal Protective Equipment suits, infection control practices to be followed inflight and also the management of anticipated health emergencies during the flight, the medical college authorities said.
Lightning claims more lives in India annually than any other extreme weather event. Between April and July this year alone, 1,621 people died due to lightning strikes.
ccording to the MEA plan shared with the ministry of civil aviation that is set to begin from May 7, approximately 14,800 passengers will be evacuated from 13 different countries. F
'Tom Curran went to the airport, but heard that the airport was closed.' 'Then he started crying like a little child. It took two or three people to handle him.'
On Monday, the fifth Air India flight landed in Delhi from Bucharest with 249 Indian nationals while the sixth flight arrived from Budapest here with 240 Indian nationals, the officials said.
Two Indian aircraft would be permitted to operate from the Kabul airport which is under the control of American security forces, government sources told ANI.
Under its evacuation mission 'Operation Kaveri ', India has set up a transit facility at Jeddah and all the Indians have been taken to the Saudi Arabian city after their evacuation from Sudan.
As severe cyclonic storm 'Remal' initiated its landfall process between the coasts of Bangladesh and adjoining West Bengal on Sunday evening, authorities took swift action, evacuating over 1 lakh people from vulnerable areas of the state to safety.
The flight arrived at Wuhan's Tianhe International Airport on Friday evening. While the official number of students to be airlifted in the two flights is not known, Indians who reached the Wuhan airport on Friday said they were told that 374 were expected to be airlifted by the Air India flight. India has taken an undertaking from the Indians travelling in the two flights that they would be quarantined for 14 days after their arrival, besides undergoing special checks at the Wuhan airport.
Eight persons have been killed in floods and landslides in Assam as incessant rainfall caused massive inundation in 17 districts, affecting over 78,000 people, officials said on Saturday.
People in some border villages of Ferozepur district in Punjab began moving to safer areas amid soaring tensions between India and Pakistan.
The central government has told the high court that under 'Operation Ganga', in addition to commercial aircrafts, Indian Air Force flights have also been pressed into operation to evacuate the Indians who have crossed into Romania, Poland, Hungary and other neighbouring countries of Ukraine.
The government is organising evacuation flights for Indians in Ukraine, the sources said, adding that the cost will be completely borne by the government.
Indian evacuation flights are operating out of Bucharest and Budapest. The government is not charging the rescued citizens for the evacuation flights.
The plane, which took off from Jeddah around 11 am IST, landed in Mumbai at 3.15 pm, an official said.
From the Gulf countries to Malaysia and the UK to the US, the multi-agency operation christened 'Vande Bharat Mission' will see the state-owned AI operate 64 flights till May 13 in the first phase to ferry around 15,000 Indian nationals from 12 countries.
India on Saturday 'strongly pressed' the Russian and Ukrainian governments through multiple channels for an immediate ceasefire in Sumy to ensure a safe passage for around 700 Indian students stuck there as it keeps focus on their evacuation from the war-hit city in eastern Ukraine.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh and around 200 Indians, mainly students, also returned to India on the flight that landed at 6.15 pm, they said.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said India hopes to evacuate its citizens from Kharkiv and Pisochyn in the next few hours.
Wing Commander Raveendran and flight steward Sargeant Iyer, though shaken and injured, managed to open the rear door of the aircraft and shouted for Prime Minister Morarji Desai and the passengers in the forward cabin to exit in haste since they suspected that fire would engulf the aircraft.
President Droupadi Murmu has approved gallantry awards to 93 armed forces personnel, including two Kirti Chakras and 14 Shaurya Chakras, on the eve of Republic Day. The Kirti Chakras, India's second-highest peacetime gallantry award, have been awarded to Major Manjit from 22 Rashtriya Rifles and posthumously to Naik Dilwar Khan, 28 Rashtriya Rifles. The president also approved 305 defense decorations to Armed Forces and other personnel.
The Supreme Court on Friday took note of the Centre's submission that it has evacuated 17,000 stranded Indians from the conflict zone in Ukraine, saying it appreciated the efforts but was concerned about the anxiety of people.
The Indian mission in Ukraine on Tuesday said it has evacuated 52 out of the 75 Indian sailors stranded at the Port of Mykolaiv in the war-hit nation.
Briefing reporters on the ongoing evacuation mission 'Operation Kaveri', Kwatra said approximately 1,700 to 2,000 Indian nationals were moved out of the conflict zones and they included the citizens already evacuated out of Sudan as well as those who are on their way to Port Sudan from capital city Khartoum.
'It was a terrible experience to survive the war for 13 days'
'The strategic direction of the relationship will not be affected. But the perception has been affected.'
"But the completion by August 31 depends on the Taliban continuing to cooperate and allow access to the airport for those who were transporting out and no disruptions to our operations," US President Joe Biden said.
' We have run out of food items and there is no place to stock up again. When will this end?'
'The situation is very bad there. People are stranded'
According to the police, the CISF received an e-mail warning of a bomb on the flight.
Panic gripped a Chennai-bound Jet Airways flight carrying 153 passengers after a fire alarm in the cockpit went off when the plane was on the taxiway for takeoff tonight and 30 of them were injured during evacuation by emergency chutes.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing that 1,396 Indians were brought back home in six flights in the last few days as part of the evacuation mission.
Heavy rains packed with gusty winds lashed Odisha and parts of southern West Bengal as the landfall process of the severe cyclonic storm Dana was complete on Friday morning with no loss of life.
The first attempt to evacuate students on March 7 failed, despite ceasefire and planning.
The Indian students who arrived in the city of Bucharest in Romania from Ukraine said that the national tricolour helped them as well as some Pakistani and Turkish students in safely crossing the various checkpoints in the war-torn country.
All airports and air carriers are being informed to be ready for operations from May 25. SOPs for passenger movement are also being separately issued by the ministry of civil aviation.
Anxious relatives of several Indians stuck in Sudan following the fighting between the Army and paramilitary forces are eagerly waiting for information about their relatives and appealed to the government to evacuate them from the strife-torn African country as soon as possible.
While the Gujarat government has not specified the exact number of students from the state still stuck in Ukraine, Gujarat Education Minister Jitu Vaghani gave an assurance on Thursday that the Centre as well as the Indian Embassy in Ukraine were doing everything possible to ensure the safe return of the students.
A special Indian Air Force repatriation flight ferrying 168 evacuees from Kabul landed at the Hindon air base in Ghaziabad on Sunday.
As many as 231 Indians, including 208 Gujarat residents, who were evacuated from strife-torn African nation Sudan under the Centre's 'Operation Kaveri', landed at Ahmedabad airport on Tuesday, said a state government official.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances