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 5.58 pm.
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 6 pm 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 Feb 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
BERNAMA provides up-to-date authentic and comprehensive news and information which are disseminated via BERNAMA Wires; www.bernama.com; BERNAMA TV on Astro 502, unifi TV 631 and MYTV 121 channels and BERNAMA Radio on FM93.9 (Klang Valley), FM107.5 (Johor Bahru), FM107.9 (Kota Kinabalu) and FM100.9 (Kuching) frequencies.
Follow us on social media :
Facebook : @bernamaofficial, @bernamatv, @bernamaradio
Twitter : @bernama.com, @BernamaTV, @bernamaradio
Instagram : @bernamaofficial, @bernamatvofficial, @bernamaradioofficial
TikTok : @bernamaofficial
