Hundreds of people, including inconsolable family members and friends, gave an emotional farewell to First Officer Clive Kunder, co-pilot of the Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad last week, and flight attendant Roshni Songhare whose last rites were held on Thursday.
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.
Air India will be commencing its scheduled operations -- two daily flights from the national capital -- to Dhaka on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister has organised a reception for the team at his residence at 11 am.
>Two hundred and forty one Indians in the Ukraine returned on a special Air India flight from Kyiv amid rising Russia-Ukraine tensions.
Indian students returned from Ukraine early on Wednesday morning following advisories issued by the Indian embassy in Kyiv amid rising Russia-Ukraine tensions.
Videos of a purported security officer hitting a student had gone viral a couple of days ago as the stranded students tried to reach Ukraine's western borders after Russia launched an invasion of the country.
'There is a healthy culture of learning.'
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.
The total cost will include expenses related to crew, fuel, navigation, landing and parking charges.
President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday visited the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Museum here and paid homage to the founding father of Bangladesh.
Air India is operating the San Francisco sector after 50 days as India had imposed restrictions due to COVID-19 spread.
All the evacuees will undergo a 14-day quarantine at a medical facility.
A total of 168 people, including 107 Indians and 23 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, were flown from Kabul to the Hindon airbase in a C-17 heavy-lift military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
The six students may have to undergo tests to determine whether they have symptoms of the coronavirus. Ahead of the evacuation, the Indian Embassy had informed the Indians that they will be tested before the flight and undergo 14 day quarantine after reaching India.
'An ambassador may not be sure whether there would be a war next month, but prudence requires him to take action to see to it that people leave early.' 'Because once the war starts, it will be very difficult to move out.'
India on Sunday brought back nearly 400 people, including 329 of its nationals and two Afghan lawmakers, in three different flights as part of its efforts to evacuate its citizens from Kabul in the backdrop of the deteriorating situation in the city after its takeover by the Taliban
"It was a very proud moment for me as well as the entire Air India crew when we heard from Pakistan ATC praising our special flight operations to Europe," one of the senior captains of the special flight said.
Forty-six nurses, who were held captive by Sunni militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants in Iraq, on Saturday returned home by a special Air India flight to a happy reunion with their families here, bringing to an end their about month-long ordeal.
Altogether 602 Indians were on Friday airlifted back home from Larnaca in Cyprus.
Over 660 Indian nationals evacuated from Yemen arrived home by two IAF planes and a special Air India flight on Friday night, taking the total number of evacuees who have been safely brought back from the strife-torn country to 1,022.
Qureshi said the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad had been informed of Pakistan's decision to not allow prime minister's Modi's special Air India One aircraft to fly over the country.
Bangladesh on Sunday rolled out the red carpet for President Pranab Mukherjee who arrived in Dhaka on a three-day state visit to boost bilateral ties amidst a general strike called by Jamaat-e-Islami to protest conviction of its three top leaders for the 1971 war crimes.
It was a repatriation flight for the Indians stuck in London and being exposed to infection during the long journey was a risk but Formula 1 hopeful Jehan Daruvala had no option.
The body of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh was on Thursday night brought to Amritsar onboard a special Air India aircraft from Lahore, where he died following a murderous assault in a jail.
International and Indian airlines are refusing to refund cash and giving credit that can be used later.
Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai on Thursday spoke to his Pakistani counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani and asked him to expedite the handing over the body of Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh who died in a Lahore hospital early on Thursday morning after battling for life for nearly a week.
Rediff.com's Saisuresh Sivaswamy, who travelled with Vice President Hamid Ansari as part of his media entourage during his recent trip to Vietnam, shares his experiences.
'India had done the right thing to go for a nationwide lockdown, but the major problem for the country could surface when the monsoon season arises as people's immunity levels go down.'
The government has made arrangements for a special Air India flight to carry 300 Indians -- mainly women and children -- from Cairo, which has been rocked by violent protests for the past few days, to India. The arrangement for the special flight was made at the request of the Indian community in Egypt in view of the prevailing situation there, the external affairs ministry said in a statement. The arrangements are being coordinated by Indian Ambassador R Swaminathan.
Rediff.com caught up with some of the rescued Indians from Libya, who landed at the Delhi airport.
Nearly a third of 18,000 Indians, stuck in strife-torn Libya, would have been evacuated by Tuesday through air and sea.
A third batch of 67 Indians arrived in Mumbai from Libya early on Monday morning. So far, over 550 Indians have returned from strife-torn Libya on special Air India flights, but thousands continue to remain stranded.
Launching a major evacuation drive, India has brought back over 530 of its nationals from strife-torn Libya by two special Air India planes, even as 88 others crossed over by road to Tunisia from the North African nation facing large-scale protests against the Gaddafi regime.
Two Special Air India flights to Tripoli will operate from Saturday over the next 10 days and two Naval warships including amphibious vessel INS Jalashwa will also set sail to bring back thousands of Indian nationals stranded in strife-torn Libya.Evacuation through sea will begin from Sunday with one of the chartered ships, Scotia Prince, with a capacity to accommodate 1,200 persons set to reach Benghazi port in Libya. An estimated 18,000 Indian nationals live in Libya.
Kerala top the list of state-wise break-up of repatriation requests with 25,246, followed by 6,617 from Tamil Nadu and 4,341 from Maharashtra. A total of 3,715 people from Uttar Pradesh requested for evacuation, 3,320 from Rajasthan, 2,796 from Telangana and, 2,786 from Karnataka.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott for summit talks in Canberra on Tuesday during which the two countries are expected to sign a series of pacts on social security, transfer of sentenced prisoners and combating narcotics trade.
Forty six Indian nurses initially stranded at a hospital in Tikrit and later moved to Mosul have been freed by the fighters of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Out of those who arrived from Lebanon at 2.15 AM, 269 were from Tamil Nadu, 139 from Punjab, nine from Kerala, three from Goa and one each from Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
The first batch of 44 Keralite nurses, stranded in strife torn Libya, would arrive in India on Tuesday. The nurses, working in various hospitals in Libya, had reached Tunisia, from where they will be reaching Dubai to take the scheduled flight to Kochi and arrive Tuesday morning, chief executive officer of Non-Resident Keralite Affairs department P Sudeep said.
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