Indian killed, A-I to join evacuation

MUMBAI: Air India on Friday began evacuating Indian nationals residing in Lebanon. The flag carrier’s efforts will supplement the Indian navy’s process that began earlier this week.

Air India sources said that two Boeing 747-400s, with a seating capacity of 423 seats each, took off from Mumbai in the early hours of Friday for Larnaca in Cyprus, where the Indian nationals from Lebanon are being brought by ship.

The two flights with about 600 passengers are expected to return to India late on Friday night. While the first of the two Boeing 747-400s with 350 evacuees on board will land in Chennai at around 11.30 pm, the other flight with 254 evacuees on board is expected to arrive in Mumbai past midnight.

Even though the aircraft have been in Larnaca since Friday morning, the boarding could commence only after people could reach Larnaca by ship from Beirut, the spokesman added. According to the airline’s spokesman, Air India will operate more special flights in the coming days, as per demand projected by the GoI.

Official sources said one Indian has died in Israeli bombardment on Lebanon. The deceased has been identified as Devesh Kumar Swain of Orissa, they said. Mr Swain had gone missing along with three persons when a glass factory they were working in received a hit in Israeli bombing three days ago, the sources said.

The three others were later found injured in a hospital. One of them Kalpanath Singh Yadav, who had received minor injuries, was evacuated on Thursday.