COVID-19 By Captain Martin Chalk, Log Board member Call of duty Keeping air links open has been crucial for the safe repatriation of people during the COVID-19 pandemic OVID-19 has turned the aviation world, alongside much of the rest of human life, upside down. Many people have been heroic in their efforts to minimise its pernicious effects; none more so than valiant medical and support staff, saving lives in our hospitals. A less well-publicised group was the small number of our colleagues called upon to keep open vital air links. Aviation has often been painted as a villain of the piece, the route by which the virus has spread around the world, but it has also been the means by which those abroad are returned to their loved ones and back to medical cover, potentially unavailable to them away from home. It is the supply line for vital medical and protective equipment needed to fight the pandemic in the UK, too. As the crisis deepened, many people found a myriad of ways to contribute to the fight against the disease. One of these was Captain Minesh Patel, a BA 777 captain who has, since the beginning of the crisis, flown repatriation flights to Lima, Peru, Delhi and Ahmedabad in India, and a freighter there and back to Shanghai a 30-hour duty day. Mineshs story is the classic pilot challenge of providing cool, dispassionate adherence to safe, standard operating procedures, forged in the heat of the tragedy of previous aircraft accidents and incidents, against human distractions in this case, the overwhelming desire to bring Britons home and save people from the threat of being isolated in a foreign country in lockdown over COVID-19. At a technical level, Minesh described the novel challenges facing the seven pilots rostered to fly to Shanghai and back in a single duty, and the lengths they went to in order to ensure any hazards were avoided, trapped or properly mitigated. Knowing why you are doing the flight gives you a much greater sense of purpose and determination to accomplish the mission and all its objectives, and that motivates you to do your best, he says. But the flight was not a routine BA operation and presented some unique challenges not just for the pilots, but also for everyone else. The ground staff, the flight planners, the operational support staff that meant there was always a high potential for unforeseen threats and for things to fall through the cracks. We needed to think ahead constantly and address threats early so that we could preserve capacity and focus on SOPs, the backbone of a safe operation. The tension between striving for a normal, safe, standard operation and dealing with the distractions of a very unusual mission is clear. Growing challenge The challenges then grew when away from home. A small number of Peruvian passengers were flown home to Lima, and a full aircraft of mainly leisure Brits were brought back to the UK. It was dealing with the complexities on the ground that required our best efforts, so that things in the air became relatively normal. These were some of the issues that had to be faced: being handled by the Peruvian Air Force (firm, polite, fair); being supported remotely by the BA station staff in Buenos Aires and by military and FCO staff from the Rapid Despatch Team; dealing with exhausted and stressed passengers, desperate to be home Team spirit: the UK Foreign with their loved ones, often with unusual or and Commonwealth Office, the UK Armed Forces (UK non-aviation-related needs; arranging packed JFHQ) and British Airways crew lunches from the hotel in Lima in lieu of catering for the return flight and making Relieved British nationals lining up for registration in a locked down Peru sure services could be paid for, even if it meant paying on a personal credit card; addressing and overcoming a lack of basic, civilian airport facilities in a military part of the airport; deciding the best way to allocate premium seats (for the elderly and persons of reduced mobility); ensuring that there was sufficient provision of water and food for the long flight home; and liaising between military, diplomatic, airport and airline people, as well as cabin crew and the other flight crew. All of this had to be done when normal processes and arrangements were simply not always available. This operation was very distracting. For some of the flights, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had arranged connections with local carriers to bring in British people stranded around Peru. But on landing in Lima and because of local restrictions, they had to remain on their aircraft until they could be tarmac-transferred to the BA 777 home. Flight crew were despatched to those aircraft to meet and assure the anxious, waiting travellers that we were here, all was in hand, and that they were not going to be left behind. The cabin crew created a very positive atmosphere empathetic and even, on occasion, humorous, to maintain everyones spirits. The customers were very grateful to be picked up and nobody was difficult many slept all the way home. Asked about the effect on his family and friends, Minesh was humble, pointing out that his daughter and her fianc were doctors treating COVID-19 patients and knew the challenges of a lack of equipment first hand. Friends in his Hindu community were just as supportive, as they were also actively engaged as volunteers and as keyworkers in supporting the national effort and the community in any way they could to help to get the UK back on its feet. A visit from the friendly and helpful officers of the Peruvian Air Force Sense of purpose After a very long and unusually challenging trip, what did Minesh feel when he finally arrived back home? You just want to turn around, go back out and do it all again! he says. It gives you such a strong sense of purpose at work and in your community, and you get a tremendous sense of professional satisfaction from making your role as a pilot count towards fighting the effects of this crisis. The nonroutine nature of the flight also gives you a real opportunity to influence what happens in the operation, work with a larger team on the ground and connect with our passengers in a much more meaningful way. Everyone involved contributed efforts in their own way, using their talents, skills and character, and a lot of what happened was as a result of tremendous individual effort, he says. Not just from the pilots and cabin crew, who often get the best of the publicity, but from operational staff, ground crew, planners, tech despatch everyone went beyond the call of duty and made sure they did what was necessary for us to succeed. There was such positivity from everyone.