Hundreds of Indians — stranded in Brussels following the deadly terror attacks on airport and metro station in the Belgian Capital on Tuesday that left 31 dead and 300 wounded — were brought back home safely on Friday by a Jet Airways aircraft.
“The flight 9W 1229 carrying 214 passengers, including 69 bound for Mumbai, along with 28 Jet Airways crew members landed at IGI airport at 5.10 am,” a Jet Airways spokesperson said.
After arriving in Delhi, a woman passenger said, “I was coming from Toronto and as soon as we arrived at the airport and went to the arrival bay, within 15 minutes they were asking us to evacuate as soon as possible. We had no idea what had happened.”
She said there were hundreds of passengers running out with their baggage. “From there we found out that there were three blasts,” she said.
Another passenger said the blast occurred in the departure area of the airport as soon as their flight had landed. “They took all of us out and we remained stranded there for quite some time,” added the passenger.
The ‘recovery’ flight from Amsterdam also carried the passengers who were bound
for Mumbai as their flight was cancelled at the last minute due to a technical problem in the aircraft.
Jet Airways had on Thursday operated two flights from Amsterdam for Toronto and Delhi after transporting all its stranded passengers in Brussels to the Dutch Capital by road.
It had initially planned to fly three recovery flights from Amsterdam, including one to Mumbai after pulling out all its four grounded aircraft from the Brussels airport.
However, it had to cancel the Mumbai flight at the last moment as the aircraft developed some problem, forcing the airline to combine the two flights into one.
The aircraft, which brought back the passengers to Delhi, was later flown to Mumbai with 69 passengers onboard, Jet Airways said.
“I was just landing when the blast took place. So, we could not get inside the airport (terminal building),” said another passenger.
“We were taken to some other place. We were taken care of very well,” he said.
Meanwhile, amidst heightened alert in the wake of Brussels terror attacks, security agencies have stepped up vigil at sensitive airports in the country with passengers being made to take off their footwear and belts and go through detailed frisking.