Eldritch
02-04-2011, 04:56 AM
The Finnish Foreign Ministry’s evacuation flight for Finns resident in Egypt and independent travellers has arrived in Finland. In addition to 76 Finns, there are also Swedish, Danish, Estonian and British citizens on board.
The plane arrived at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport after nine o’clock in the evening on Wednesday. Altogether, the plane evacuated 92 people, less than half the plane’s capacity.
Yesterday the number of Finns planning to return stood at nearly a hundred. According to Pasi Tuominen, Director of the Unit for Consular Assistance of the Foreign Ministry, it could be that not everyone wished to leave in the end, or that they found a different connection home.
“We do not know of anyone who wanted to take this flight but was not able to do so,” says Tuominen.
There were worries that the plane would not be able to take off due to the chaotic situation at the Cairo International Airport.
At the moment, the Foreign Ministry is not planning to send any more evacuation planes to Egypt.
About a thousand Finns remain in Egypt on package holidays. Tour operators plan to evacuate them by Friday.
Link. (http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/02/evacuation_flight_from_cairo_arrives_safely_233607 1.html)
An interesting detail is that among those 76 "Finns" are an unknown number (not less than 20) Somalis, who have friends or relatives who have Finnish citizenships, and have thus obtained their passports by having them mailed to Egypt.
The plane arrived at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport after nine o’clock in the evening on Wednesday. Altogether, the plane evacuated 92 people, less than half the plane’s capacity.
Yesterday the number of Finns planning to return stood at nearly a hundred. According to Pasi Tuominen, Director of the Unit for Consular Assistance of the Foreign Ministry, it could be that not everyone wished to leave in the end, or that they found a different connection home.
“We do not know of anyone who wanted to take this flight but was not able to do so,” says Tuominen.
There were worries that the plane would not be able to take off due to the chaotic situation at the Cairo International Airport.
At the moment, the Foreign Ministry is not planning to send any more evacuation planes to Egypt.
About a thousand Finns remain in Egypt on package holidays. Tour operators plan to evacuate them by Friday.
Link. (http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/02/evacuation_flight_from_cairo_arrives_safely_233607 1.html)
An interesting detail is that among those 76 "Finns" are an unknown number (not less than 20) Somalis, who have friends or relatives who have Finnish citizenships, and have thus obtained their passports by having them mailed to Egypt.