280 US nationals to leave Islamabad in chartered flight tonight
April 10, 2020 04:52 PM
A special flight will leave Islamabad on Friday at 7pm for the US via Egypt as part of the operations to fly the stranded Americans back to their homes.
Flight No MS3071, who will carry 280 US nationals, is first of the three flights arranged by the US government, which are scheduled from Friday to Sunday (April 10 to April 12).
The US nationals have started arriving at Islamabad International Airport, while the plane is planned to land at 5:30pm.
The US government arranged the three chartered flights to be operated by Egypt Air’s Boeing 787 after Pakistan granted permission following receiving a request.
The flights on Friday and Saturday will carry the US diplomats and nationals from Islamabad, while the third one on Sunday is scheduled from Karachi.
The US has operated special flights in the recent days to evacuate its diplomats and citizens from Pakistan because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In one such flight, 294 passengers had left Karachi on April 3 in a specially chartered plane.
Earlier, as many as 69 American diplomatic officials left Pakistan to Afghanistan in the wake of ever-spreading coronavirus cases on March 26 a few days after a batch of 75 US diplomats left for Georgia through a chartered flight.
On the other hand, another 600 British nationals left Pakistan on Friday through two special PIA flights from Islamabad earlier in the day, as they thanked the UK High Commission for its efforts for their evacuation.