Qatar Airways says it will operate a special one-off flight to an airport close to the epicentre of two deadly earthquakes that rocked Turkey and Syria on Monday.
The Doha-based carrier said it had worked with the Turkish embassy in Qatar to arrange the flight, which will depart late on Monday night and arrive at Adana International Airport at around 2 am on Tuesday.
Adana Airport was reportedly closed following the earthquake after sustaining damage but the airfield has since reopened and has become the hub for an international relief mission to get aid and search and rescue teams to the diaster zone.
in recent hours, the United Arab Emirates said it was launching a special air mission dubbed ‘Gallant Knight-2’. The first plane carrying search and rescue teams had already departed Abu Dhabi bound for Adana Airport.
A second relief flight with as many as 370 rescue staff onboard sent from Azerbaijan has already landed at Adana Airport.
At least 2,300 people are reported to have died following two massive earthquakes that rocked the region on Monday. The first 7.8 magnitude tremor shook southeastern Turkey in the early hours of Monday, while a second smaller but still significant 7.5 magnitude quake struck hours later.
Thousands more people have been injured amid scenes of utter devastation, and tens of thousands more are in desperate need of urgent humanitarian support, including access to clean drinking water, warm clothes and tents.
Qatar Airways is making seats available on a specially chartered Airbus A320 available on a first-come, first-served basis with one-way tickets selling for $480. In a statement, the airline said: “In these challenging times, we are here to support our passengers when it’s time to travel”.
