KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — A specially chartered aircraft has departed to Wuhan this evening in the second mission to bring back 75 Malaysian citizens with their families who have been stranded in the capital of China’s Hubei province following the Covid-19 outbreak in the republic.
According to the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) spokesman, the AirAsia flight took off from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) at 5.58pm.
Twenty-one mission personnel from five agencies are involved in the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) mission, namely one each from Nadma, Foreign Ministry and Immigration Department; six from the Health Ministry; and 12 AirAsia crew members.
The return flight is scheduled to depart from Wuhan Tianhe International Airport at 1 am on Feb 26 and to arrive at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 6pm the same day.
The spokesman said those involved in the second mission will go through all the same procedures as in the first mission.
Malaysian Ambassador to China Raja Datuk Nushirwan Zainal Abidin, when contacted, said that all preparations to bring back the 75 Malaysians were running smoothly and had also been approved by the Chinese authorities.
In the first humanitarian aid mission carried out by the Malaysian government on February 4, a total of 107 Malaysians stranded in Hubei province were flown home. They comprised 88 Malaysians and 19 non-citizens who are their spouses and children. — Bernama
