Regulator DGCA orders probe after Air India Delhi-Moscow plane returns mid-way, pilot found positive coronavirus

International flights: Air India Delhi-Moscow flight returned midway after the pilot was found infected

New Delhi:

Aviation regulator DGCA will order a probe in a “span” after an empty Air India plane flying from Delhi to Moscow returned halfway when the pilot was found infected with coronavirus.

The state airline ground team realized that the pilot was a COVID-19 patient only after the Airbus A320NEO took off.

Sources from the General Directorate of Civil Aviation or DGCA said “prima facie, this seems to be a lapse”, since the pilot was not supposed to be on the plane if he was positive.

Air India conducts at least 200 coronavirus tests a day in Delhi alone for all of its crew prior to all operating flights. The results of these tests are centrally processed by the airline.

The Air India plane took off from Delhi after 7 am today and returned to the national capital at 12:30 pm, the sources said.

The crew has been quarantined. Another plane will be sent to Moscow to bring the Indians, authorities said.

Pilots are tested for coronaviruses before they are allowed to fly.

So far, 45,000 Indians have been moved home from abroad under the center’s “Vande Bharat Mission” that launched on May 7 to repatriate Indians stranded amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of Relations said Thursday. Exteriors. He said that one more lakh will take home until June 13.