Egypt crisis: First flight to arrive at KLIA tomorrow

Submitted by shaza on Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

Bernama

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 12:51:00

KUALA LUMPUR: The first flight carrying Malaysians evacuated from crisis-torn Egypt is expected to land at KL International Airport at 5am tomorrow.

The prime minister's political secretary Datuk Shahlan Ismail said the flight, carrying 309 people comprising students, as well as those who are pregnant and sick, would leave Cairo at 1pm Egyptian time (7pm Malaysian time).

He said another flight would take off at about the same time, carrying 345 Malaysian students to Jeddah before flying back to Cairo to resume the mission.

Shahlan is now in Cairo to monitor the situation in the troubled city on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's order.

He added that there would be 12 flights mounted out of Egypt tomorrow by aircraft belonging to the Malaysian air force, Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia.

"Two AirAsia and one Malaysia Airlines aircraft will fly directly to KLIA. The three C-130 Hercules transport aircraft belonging to the air force will mount flights between Jeddah and Cairo," he said when contacted.

Shahlan said the evacuation via the air would involved about 1,000 Malaysians.

On Saturday, he said, the navy's auxiliary ship, KD Bunga Mas 5, would set sail to Port Klang, carrying 500 Malaysians.

The whole operations involved 5,000 Malaysians who were trapped in the strife-torn country and that the government, through the Foreign Ministry and National Security Council, was doing its best to evacuate all 11,000 Malaysians out of Egypt, he added.

"We are moving the students out from cities such as Cairo, Alexandria, Mansoura, Tartar and Zagazig as well as in other small towns. This requires detailed planning," he said.

"We hope that the evacuation process will be smooth and successfully completed."