Airplane pilots abandon aircraft to avoid potential coronavirus infectee

Two pilots hastily clambered out of a cockpit window after hearing that passengers onboard their flight might have coronavirus.

The AirAsia pilots climbed out of the window and onto a set of stairs in New Dehli, India, thereby avoiding the rest of the passengers and crew onboard the plane.

In the footage, filmed on the tarmac, one pilot stands on top of the set of stairs as the other passes luggage through the open window.

Then a pilot can be seen climbing through the window and carefully stepping out onto the stairs placed alongside the aircraft.

Their hasty escape comes as the global coronavirus death toll hits 18,000.

India’s 1.3 billion people will go under “total lockdown” for 21 days to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday.

“From 12 midnight today (1830 GMT Tuesday), the entire country will be in lockdown, total lockdown,” Modi said in a national television address to the world’s second most-populous nation.

“To save India, to save its every citizen, you, your family… every street, every neighbourhood is being put under lockdown.”

India has lagged behind other nations in the number of COVID-19 cases, but there has been a sharp increase in recent days to 519 infections, including 10 deaths, according to the government.

Pilots spill out of aircraft in India to avoid potential coronavirus infectee onboard