It was an emotional moment for passengers of the repatriation Air India flight from London that landed in Bengaluru on Monday. There was sighs of relief and tears of joy.
Soundarya, one of the passengers in the flight, told The Hindu that when the flight made its scheduled landing at New Delhi before arriving at Bengaluru, passengers were thrilled and clapped loudly as the pilot made the announcement that the flight is about to land.
“I was in tears when the flight landed. ” she said. Ms. Soundarya, daughter of actor-politician Jayamala, was stranded in the UK for close to 50 days after the Indian government banned commercial flights from various countries. This was her second attempt to come back home after the COVID-19 outbreak.
“On March 22, I had boarded a flight to India via Dubai. When the flight landed at Dubai, passengers were asked to alight as India had imposed a ban. We were stranded in the airport for more than 17 hours and finally authorities permitted us to go back to U.K. I had to undergo 14 days quarantine after reaching London. Meanwhile, the number of cases continued to rise. It was tough. I wanted to return India no matter what,” she said.
She had gone to U.K. to pursue B.Sc. honours in Zoology. She said two of her faculty members and a student were infected too. She booked a ticket for the second time to Bengaluru after the Union government announced the evacuation flight for stranded Indians in the U.K.
“There were children, pregnant women and aged people on the flight. Each one had their stories. Some passengers had lost their family members back home during the lockdown,” she said.
An economy class ticket on the flight reportedly cost around ₹50,000.