President's Private Jet Arrives at Gimpo Carrying 6 Koreans and 1 Japanese Spouse from Japanese Cruise Ship (Comprehensive)

Quarantine at Incheon Airport Observation Facility for 14 Days After Returning to Korea

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The presidential aircraft (Air Force One, No. 3) carrying six Koreans and one Japanese spouse who disembarked from the cruise ship 'Diamond Princess' docked at Yokohama Port, Japan, arrived at Gimpo Airport at around 6:27 a.m. on the 19th. The presidential aircraft took off from Tokyo Haneda Airport at 2:20 a.m. earlier than scheduled that day.

The presidential aircraft departed from Seoul Airport at noon the previous day and arrived at Haneda Airport at around 2:50 p.m. The six Koreans and one Japanese spouse who were on board the Diamond Princess, where a cluster infection of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) occurred, disembarked around 12:20 a.m. that day to return to Korea.

Immediately after disembarking, they boarded a bus prepared by the Korean Embassy in Japan and moved to Tokyo Haneda Airport. The medical team dispatched via the presidential aircraft checked the health status of the six Koreans and one Japanese spouse.

The Koreans and spouse returning this time will be quarantined for 14 days at the isolation facility of the Incheon Airport Quarantine Station. Kim Kang-rip, Deputy Head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters for COVID-19, explained, "To block the possibility of COVID-19 inflow, thorough quarantine will be conducted as before, and our citizens and their families returning will stay in temporary living facilities for 14 days. For those Koreans remaining on board who are not returning this time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will maintain close contact and provide necessary consular assistance."

The presidential aircraft used as a transport plane is a 19-seat aircraft. The government explained that it selected the transport plane considering the small number of returnees and economic efficiency. Initially, the government was reluctant to transport the Korean passengers on the cruise ship domestically, citing that only three had domestic ties, but as confirmed cases increased on the cruise ship and other countries like the U.S. dispatched charter flights to bring their nationals home, the government decided to transport them last weekend.

The number of COVID-19 confirmed cases on the Diamond Princess, which had 14 Koreans on board, is rapidly increasing day by day. The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced the previous day that 88 additional confirmed cases were identified among the cruise ship passengers after testing for COVID-19 infection. Accordingly, the total number of infected people on the Diamond Princess has risen to 542.

The eight Korean passengers who are not returning on the presidential aircraft this time are scheduled to disembark sequentially starting that day if they test negative for COVID-19 according to the Japanese government's test results.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.