Two Philippine Airlines jets carrying Filipino crew repatriates from coronavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Diamond Princess in Yokohama, Japan are shown during their arrival at the Clark International Airport on Tuesday night. (Photo by DFA)
By Emmie V. Abadilla
Two special Philippine Airlines (PAL) flights ferried on Tuesday night repatriated some 455 Filipino crew members of the coronavirus-contaminated cruise ship Diamond Princess of the Sea from Haneda, Japan to Clark International Airport.
PAL, along with the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Health, Bureau of Quarantine, Magsaysay Shipping Lines, the local government of Tarlac and service-providers coordinated efforts to make the flights possible.
PR 8423 – the 1st repatriation flight - departed from Haneda at 6:49 p.m. local time HND (5:49 p.m. MNL time) and arrived in Clark at 10:10 p.m. with 312 passengers on board the Airbus A330.
PR 8421 – the 2nd repatriation flight – took off from Haneda at 8:40 p.m. local time HND (7:40 p.m. MNL time) and touched down in Clark at 12:17 a.m. with 143 passengers on board the Airbus A321.
Before the repatriation flights, a team of DOH officers and medical personnel flew to Haneda and traveled to the Port of Yokohama to conduct medical checks on the Filipino seafarers on Diamond Princess of the Sea. Passengers were also subjected to thermal scanning before boarding the aircraft on the day of the flights.
Upon touchdown in Clark, passengers were subjected anew to mandatory medical checks by the Bureau of Quarantine.
All seafarers were brought to the New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac for the mandatory 14-day quarantine.
The PAL planes underwent disinfection procedures upon arrival in Manila.
During the two-week period when it was isolated in port, the Diamond Princess had the largest concentration of people infected with coronavirus outside of mainland China.