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Bringing you back home during the pandemic

In March, as borders started closing across the world, aviation followed with an almost instant grounding of passenger flights. Airlines were no longer able to plan and schedule flights, leaving European citizens stranded abroad.

What followed was an impressive and complex international effort to set up rescue and repatriation flights to bring Europeans back home. Flights were carried out amidst fears, worries and uncertainties that this pandemic brought onto us. Captain Javier Fernández-Picazo, who operated a repatriation flight bringing Spanish citizens back home, shared his experience with us.

Javier, you have been a Captain of one of the repatriation flights organized to help Spanish residents stranded far away from their country. I imagine it was an unscheduled flight?

Javier: The Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry is requesting the airlines to maintain or schedule flights in order to repatriate to Spain many people whom this crisis has found outside the country. The borders’ closure decreed by many States, with so little notice, created a very difficult situation.

In my case, the flight was scheduled since early March as a regular flight and then changed to special repatriation flight. So, actually it was one of the few flights on my roster that had not been cancelled.

Both passengers & crew use protective equipment: gloves, masks and hydroalcoholic lotions.

What about protection of the crew? What measures were taken?

Javier: Both the authorities, and the operators themselves, have published specific procedures for this type of operations. This is another aspect that we discuss before each flight when we brief the crew since it is one of the few things that changed.

Passengers facing an unfamiliar set up: a makeshift terminal in a tent, constant medical checks, with the army and police surrounding the entire facility, mandatory protection kits

We must be very careful, and always use the protective equipment that companies provide us, both the crew and passengers. These include gloves, masks and hydroalcoholic lotions.

Passengers welcomed home!

We saw your emotional video that you made during the flight. You can tell that the passengers were feeling overwhelmed.

Flight 6659 brought 284 passengers back to Europe

Javier: Yes, when the passengers entered the plane, there was a tangible emotion in the air. They came on board with a certain disbelief. They had been waiting for a long time to return to Spain, and finally they were given such a chance. There was a lot of expectation, since for them everything was different: a makeshift terminal in a tent, constant medical checks, with the army and police surrounding the entire facility, mandatory protection kits. So, you can imagine their feeling when they entered the plane.

During the welcome message, I told them that they were already on Spanish territory and welcomed them home. And they began applauding. It was a beautiful moment! It shows how much we are all affected by this.

Wow, that is really something! How did you feel during that flight?

Javier: The plane was empty on our way to the destination. And that was a strange situation. Not so long ago, we used to fly our planes full. Flying them empty now gives you, as a pilot, a very peculiar and unreal feeling. Everything seems surreal nowadays.

It is a tough period, like others in the past, but I am hopeful we will overcome it. This profession will continue uniting the world, the future goes that way. Something we can do right now is collaborate with the society we serve, giving the best of ourselves in everything we do.

Images: © Javier Fernández-Picazo