Lucknow: A passenger could not control his emotion, as reached Lucknow airport on Saturday evening, after an Air India flight arrived here from Sharjah with 182 Indians on board as part of the government's 'Vande Bharat Mission'.
Kissing the floor as he came out of the airport, much to the surprise of the officials and mediapersons present there, teary-eyed Haji Mohammed Sajid said, "I was missing my parents and India very much."
"I thank the government for helping me reunite with my family after being stranded abroad for the past couple of months," said the Ayodhya resident, who worked as garment designer in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
With just one coffee vending machine and a fruit cart, the airport wore a forlorn look, while the arrival board displayed the lone flight IX184 that arrived around 9.00 pm.
Along with maintaining a strict watch on the activities of the visitors as passengers started coming out of the airport, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel screened the passengers and sent them to quarantine.
"This is the first flight to arrive in Lucknow during lockdown bringing back Indians stranded abroad due to the coronavirus crisis," Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport Director A K Sharma told reporters here.
Lucknow DM Abhishek Prakash said, "The passengers who arrived today have been placed under paid quarantine in Lucknow."