Most of the passengers on flight were Portuguese nationals
Portugal managed a successful repatriation flight from war-torn Israel last night. The flight that landed at Figo Maduro military aerodrome in Lisbon carried 69 people, including 48 Portuguese nationals.
Speaking to journalists after the flight’s arrival, Secretary of State for Communities, Emídio Sousa, explained that all onboard had requested repatriation. There were adults and children, including Spanish, German, Israeli, Czech, Austrian, Bulgarian, Argentine and Ukrainian.
He said: “the initial number was 122, whom we took out of Israel and then our Air Force transported from Egypt to Cyprus, where some went to their respective countries.”
Calling the process “a complete success”, Sousa said that diplomatic services, the Air Force and the government had all performed “fabulously”.
There are no further repatriation flights planned, although requests can always be made to Portugal in the near future.
On arrival just before 8pm, one of the Portuguese onboard explained that he had a return flight to Portugal scheduled for last Friday – the day Israel launched its attack on Iran. Heitor Nunes went to Israel to work in construction and his stay was only supposed to last a week, he said.
Nunes told Lusa that he had “never felt afraid” as missiles rained down, but admitted to having felt “a little insecure (…) even the Israelis never thought this would happen”, he stressed.
As the future remains so uncertain, the Portuguese embassy in Iran has been temporarily closed.
source material: LUSA
