300 Indians return from Cairo

An Air India Boeing 747-800 brought back 300 Indians who were stranded in strife-torn Egypt.

“We landed at Cairo airport at a quarter to 10 at night... We saw hundreds of passengers. They were there for two days stranded without food or water. It was total chaos,” Captain Anant Barve, who commanded the Air India flight, told reporters on arrival.

The aircraft was flown to Cairo on Sunday as a special measure to airlift the Indians stranded there. The carrier has also decided to send its Mumbai-Jeddah flight further to Cairo to pick up more Indians.

The Agarwals were waiting anxiously for their two sons to return. One of them, Vikram Agarwal, works with Infosys. He was full of praise for the Indian embassy officials in Cairo for making arrangements for them to fly back.

“The embassy officials called us and notified us about the flight. There was no problem,” he said.

Noor Mohammed, one of the passengers, was a worried man. Two of his friends could not be contacted back in Egypt and he left for Mumbai without them.

According to current estimates, there are about 600 Indians, including tourists, who are to be transported back here.

There are about 3,600 Indians in Egypt of whom 2,200 are in Cairo. Some Indian tourists are stranded in Sharm-el-Sheikh and efforts were underway to transport them.