Flying in the face of an unknown predator as novel coronavirus infections spread across the world rapidly will remain one of their most challenging and stressful assignments, several Indian flight attendants told Mumbai Mirror on Tuesday.
The flight crews, who have been flying to international and domestic destinations through February and March during the pandemic, will finally get a much needed break from Tuesday midnight when India shuts down even domestic flights. A notification announcing the suspension of domestic flights
from March 24 midnight till midnight of March 31 was released by the government today.
“In 14 years of my flying career, I have never experienced anything like this,” said an Air India cabin supervisor who began her 14-day self-quarantine at her home in Delhi after flying on one of the last Washington-Delhi flights, which landed on Saturday. The embargo on all international flights came into place from 1.30 am on Sunday.
She said Air India being the national carrier was the only one flying daily on the US sector even as other international airlines had cut down frequencies.
“Most of the March flights were to bring back Indians who wanted to return home. We had received detailed SOPs on what to do on these flights. We had to wear given multiple pairs of face masks and surgical gloves through the entire 14-hour flights and sanitise hands frequently. We had to avoid any kind of contact with passengers, surfaces, especially while serving them,” she said.
She was on several flights to Singapore, Dubai and San Francisco. The San Francisco-Delhi flight brought back a plane full of Indian students and OCI cardholders on March 13 just before visa restrictions for OCI cardholders also came into place on March 13 midnight.
“Passengers from the western countries understood the seriousness of Covid-19 in comparison with Indians and many would simply avoid speaking to anyone. I remember a young girl student who didn’t eat a meal through the entire flight. She was carrying sanitiser wipes and refused anything that was not cleanly packed. When I tried to cajole her to eat something, she said she wouldn’t want to speak either,” she said.
24/03/20 Satish Nandagaonkar/Mumbai Mirror
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
The flight crews, who have been flying to international and domestic destinations through February and March during the pandemic, will finally get a much needed break from Tuesday midnight when India shuts down even domestic flights. A notification announcing the suspension of domestic flights
from March 24 midnight till midnight of March 31 was released by the government today.
“In 14 years of my flying career, I have never experienced anything like this,” said an Air India cabin supervisor who began her 14-day self-quarantine at her home in Delhi after flying on one of the last Washington-Delhi flights, which landed on Saturday. The embargo on all international flights came into place from 1.30 am on Sunday.
She said Air India being the national carrier was the only one flying daily on the US sector even as other international airlines had cut down frequencies.
“Most of the March flights were to bring back Indians who wanted to return home. We had received detailed SOPs on what to do on these flights. We had to wear given multiple pairs of face masks and surgical gloves through the entire 14-hour flights and sanitise hands frequently. We had to avoid any kind of contact with passengers, surfaces, especially while serving them,” she said.
She was on several flights to Singapore, Dubai and San Francisco. The San Francisco-Delhi flight brought back a plane full of Indian students and OCI cardholders on March 13 just before visa restrictions for OCI cardholders also came into place on March 13 midnight.
“Passengers from the western countries understood the seriousness of Covid-19 in comparison with Indians and many would simply avoid speaking to anyone. I remember a young girl student who didn’t eat a meal through the entire flight. She was carrying sanitiser wipes and refused anything that was not cleanly packed. When I tried to cajole her to eat something, she said she wouldn’t want to speak either,” she said.
24/03/20 Satish Nandagaonkar/Mumbai Mirror
0 comments:
Post a Comment