Air India Express crew member flew despite testing positive

A senior member of Air India Express’s cabin crew was on duty despite the airlines being aware that she tested positive for Covid-19 around 50 minutes before the employee’s flight, it has been found. The airline, while admitting that the employee had tested positive, said it will investigate the matter further.

The 44-year-old woman employee had undergone an RT-PCR test on November 12, the report for which was received before the scheduled flight from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport. The crew member’s report and her schedule for Friday, November 13, accessed by HT, per showed that the employee even operated on the same sector and returned to her base station (Delhi) [via the return flight]. Although the 44-year-old was quarantined from the next day, the airline allowed her to operate the entire day on November 13. India is already facing issues with Dubai and Hong Kong after passengers from India tested Covid-19 positive after landing there.

An Air India Express spokesperson said, “The said flight was a Delhi-Madurai flight, for which a pre-flight RT-PCR test is not mandatory.