Coronavirus: China deliberately delaying clearance for IAF evacuation flight?

The C-17 flight was originally scheduled to take place on Thursday

C-17 Boeing A C-17 | Twitter handle of Boeing India

Even though Chinese officials had warmly welcomed India's decision to send medical supplies to Wuhan to help curb spread of the novel coronavirus, Beijing is apparently delaying giving permission for a special Indian Air Force flight to carry these supplies.

An Indian Air Force C-17 transport jet was to ferry the medical supplies and evacuate Indians remaining in Wuhan. The C-17 is the largest transport aircraft in the Indian Air Force fleet.

The C-17 flight was originally scheduled to take place on Thursday, but permission has yet to be granted for it. "China is deliberately delaying grant of clearance for the evacuation flight," a high-level source told PTI on Saturday. "China maintains there is no delay, but inexplicably the clearance has not been given," the source added.

On Friday, China denied "any delay" in allowing the Indian Air Force flight, maintaining that the departments concerned were in touch to finalise the schedule.

“The competent departments on the two sides are still in communication on the arrangement for the remaining 80 people that India plans to fly home. There is no such thing as China delaying giving flight permissions,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told mediapersons on Friday.

Interestingly, the grant of permission for two Air India flights to Wuhan also took several days. The Air India flights, on January 31 and February 2, eventually brought back over 600 Indians from Wuhan.