AirAsia flight to bring Malaysians home lands in Wuhan

The AirAsia aircraft sent to bring the 141 Malaysians in Wuhan and their families home has landed at the city’s airport.

A flight-tracking website shows that AirAsia flight AK8264 landed at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport at 8.53 pm on Monday (Feb 3).

It is expected to bring back the 141 Malaysians, their foreign spouses, and children stranded in Hubei province following the lockdown of Wuhan city – the epicenter of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak.

Wuhan has been locked down by the Chinese authorities due to the outbreak.

The time of their departure has yet to be confirmed, and the plane – which is carrying 500,000 pairs of gloves for the Chinese as a gesture of the Malaysian Government – left KLIA2 at 3.50 pm on Monday.

Earlier, Bernama reported that Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said that all 141 Malaysian citizens, their spouses, and children would be required to go through a health screening in Wuhan before being allowed to board the plane back to Malaysia.

The Central Disaster Management Committee chairman added that all 167 people on board (comprising 141 Malaysian citizens, their spouses and children, 12 crew, eight members of the mission and six officers from the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing) would go through another heath screening at the Air Disaster Unit (ADU) of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) when the flight returns.

“Those found to have the symptoms will immediately be sent to a hospital, while others will be taken by bus to a monitoring center where they will be under observation for 14 days, ” she said.

Wan Azizah also said that the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) will inform their families in Malaysia on the flight’s details, the health screening and the quarantine period.