RIYADH — A first of its kind 42-hour Saudi Arabian Airlines flight touched down at King Khalid International Airport here on Friday evening with 187 Saudi nationals stranded in the US on board. The flight from Los Angeles was led by four air crews who spent more than 42 hours in the air (back and forth to and from the US). In all, the crew comprised of eight pilots and 35 flight attendants. The flight is part of special air arrangements ordered by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to repatriate Saudi nationals willing to come back from different countries where they were left stranded due to the halt in air traffic following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said. The flight is considered one of the longest international flights in the world. At the airport, the passengers were received by President of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), Abdulhadi Bin Ahmed Al-Mansouri, and Assistant to the President for Operations, Suleiman Al-Bassam, and a number of government officials. Immediately after their arrival, all health and preventive measures to combat the Novel were applied. It included 12 stages that are applied from the arrival of the citizens at the airport of the country of departure until their arrival and exit from the kingdom's airports. Meanwhile, when the flight arrived at the kingdom's airports, GACA applies the procedures by which the passengers disembark from the plane in a standardized way to ensure that there is no congestion inside the terminals. This in addition to providing a sterilization area at the gate. The Ministry of Health has allocated a checkpoint through which all incoming passengers pass through the mandatory thermal camera devices to ensure the safety of all passengers. When a positive condition is suspected among the passengers, that particular passenger is then isolated from the rest of the crowd and a safe path is then activated to transfer the case. Furthermore, passengers are also required to sterilize their hands before the start of passport control (Jawazat) and fingerprinting procedures. At the customs area a distance of at least 1.5 meters is maintained between the customs officers and passengers. Passengers are then sorted on the last stage, upon exit by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Tourism, each according to their destinations. Meanwhile, passengers are then directed to buses allocated to them from the transport fleet of the Ministry of Education, which is provided with all services and safety measures. Passengers are then transported to the guesthouses prepared by the Ministry of Tourism and supervised by the Ministry of Health for a period of 14 days, according to the health measures adopted to combat the epidemic. The returning citizens expressed their happiness over their arrival, extending their thanks and appreciation to the leadership for the care and attention they received during their stay abroad until their arrival in the Kingdom.
