Passenger on IndiGo's Chennai-Coimbatore flight tests COVID positive; airline grounds crew

A passenger onboard an IndiGo flight that operated on Monday (May 27) from Chennai to Coimbatore has tested positive for coronavirus and the airline has grounded the flights crew for 14 days.

The 24-year-old man, whose swab test results came on Tuesday, is now at the ESI hospital in Coimbatore for further treatment, officials said. This is possibly the first case of an air passenger testing positive for coronavirus after domestic flight services resumed operations on Monday.

In a statement on Tuesday, IndiGo said that a passenger who travelled on 6E 381 from Chennai to Coimbatore on May 25 evening has tested positive for COVID-19. “All our aircraft are regularly sanitised as a standard operating procedure, and the aircraft operating this flight was also immediately disinfected as per protocol.”

“The operating crew has been grounded for 14 days and we are in the process of notifying other passengers as per the government guidelines, to ensure safety of our passengers and staff,” the statement said.

The airline said it has received confirmation from the Coimbatore airport doctor that the passenger tested positive for coronavirus and is currently quarantined at the ESI state medical facility in Coimbatore. “He was seated on-board the aircraft with all precautionary measures including face mask, face shield and gloves, as were the other passengers,” it said, adding that no one else was seated in his vicinity, significantly reducing the possibility of transmission.

The person was working in the room service wing of a star hotel in Chennai, the officials said. This is also the first coronavirus positive case to be reported in Coimbatore after a gap of 21 days. However, officials said the case would be included in the official count of Chennai as per protocol.

On Monday, over 130 passengers arrived in Coimbatore from Chennai and Delhi after the Centre allowed resumption of domestic flight services and all of them underwent the necessary test for coronavirus in line with the health protocol guidelines of the Tamil Nadu government.

Meanwhile, a 50-year-old Alliance Air employee, one of the 11 people on board a Delhi-Ludhiana flight on Monday, also tested positive for coronavirus. All other passengers have been quarantined.

According to news reports, a total of 116 samples were taken on Monday when domestic flights restarted after two months of coronavirus lockdown.

Airlines ferried nearly 42,000 passengers on 325 flights till 5 pm on Tuesday. While a passenger was tested positive for COVID, an AirAsia flight carrying 74 people made an emergency landing in Hyderabad. Officials said several of the flights operated on Monday were half empty.

The air carriers also resorted to cancellation of several flights on the second day of resumption of services due to truncated schedules following requests from several states owing to the coronavirus crisis posing difficulties to hundreds of passengers at several airports. The number of cancellations was not immediately available though Tuesday’s passenger load indicated more travellers taking to flights compared to Monday. Airlines also began operating from Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday while flights will resume in West Bengal from Thursday that is expected to increase the passenger traffic.

“Smooth operations of domestic civil aviation operation. Our airports have handled 325 departures & 283 arrivals with 41,673 passengers till 5 pm on 26 May 2020, the second day after recommencement of domestic flights,” Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday.

Domestic flights recommenced operations on Monday after a gap of two months. The services were suspended on March 25 in the wake of the nationwide lockdown to curb spreading of coronavirus infections.