Air India flight returns midway from Delhi to Moscow after pilot detect positive for COVID-19

An Air India flight from Delhi to Moscow was asked to return midway on Saturday after its ground team realised that one of the pilots onboard the plane tested positive for coronavirus, officials in the airline and aviation regulator DGCA told PTI.

The Airbus A320 plane departed around 7.15 AM for Moscow to bring back a group of stranded Indians under the Vande Bharat evacuation mission and it was back in Delhi by 12.30 PM following orders from the authorities,



they said.

Two senior bureaucrats confirmed that there was a "lapse" on the part of officials responsible to scrutinise the coronavirus test reports of the crew members and that they did not look at the pilot's test results properly.

According to standard operating procedure, pilots and other crew members of any flight are required to undergo mandatory testing for coronavirus and are assigned duties if the laboratory results are negative.