All 98 passengers in the Silk Air, that landed on Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) Saturday night have been confirmed to be Nepali Citizens.
The Silk Air flight landed on TIA at 8:32 pm, ignoring the Department of Immigration (DoI)’s March 18 notice restricting passengers from taking direct or transit flights originating from Europe, West Asia, Turkey, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and all the Gulf countries.
However, the passengers aboard the flight were not allowed to get off the plane for around two hours as some of them had come from restricted countries.
Nepal, which has reported one coronavirus case so far, had banned transit passengers from Europe as well as all flights from Europe as part of efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus.
They were, however, later allowed to get off the plane with three people — two arriving from Japan and one from the Netherlands — sent to quarantine. The rest of them were sent home with instruction to stay in self-isolation for 14 days, a TIA source said.
The Silk Air aircraft that was scheduled to depart the same night with 165 passengers to Singapore, however, has been grounded. The plane is likely to take off some time today, informed the TIA source.
Earlier, 64 Nepalis had arrived in Nepal via Air India and Thai Airways flights from their transit destinations in New Delhi and Bangkok, were sent to Kharipati quarantine.
International flights operations at Tribhuvan International Airport will remain shut from March 22 to March 31.
