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By Thursday morning, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (EDA) will take three 750 flights back home to Switzerland.
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The Swiss were stranded in South America because of Corona.
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Ignazio Cassis first explained that every Swiss was responsible for their return journey. Then he gave in.
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She is finally home. Ramona Rüegg (19) is back in Switzerland. The Bernese woman was on the first plane that brought stranded Swiss tourists back from abroad. In cooperation with Edelweiss, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (EDA) organized three flights for around 750 Swiss.
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The first return flight landed in Zurich on Tuesday. The machine came from Costa Rica. Despite Corona, the stewardesses did not wear masks or distributed disinfectants, reports the 19-year-old. The flight was also smooth – because of the time difference during the Central American night. You slept a lot.
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People were more aggressive
However, it was unusual for the police to call all travelers by name when departing from the Costa Rican capital San José. This is to check whether the registered users are there. Many travelers also wore face masks. And: “Some had a dry cough on the plane,” says Ramona Rüegg.
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That led to a strange mood. People were generally more aggressive than usual and thoughtful from a distance. There was turmoil. Two passengers even had to be handcuffed. And: coughing people received more attention than usual.
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After the direct flight landed, the passengers had to leave the machine in groups. “But when the luggage was picked up, all the passengers approached each other again,” says Rüegg.
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Wanted to look after children from poor families
Ramona Rüegg wants to start studying social work in autumn and wanted to do a preliminary internship in Costa Rica. She completed a language course in the first month of her stay. Then she would have wanted to look after children from poor families in a school for three months.
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Now the young woman from Bern only looked after children on one single day. Then measures to contain the virus came into force in Costa Rica and the children no longer came to school. “Everything changed suddenly from one day to the next,” says Ramona Rüegg.
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Great stress to get tickets
The young woman hesitated a long time before returning. Then another intern was thrown out by his host family because they thought he had been outside for too long. The Costa Rican nervousness increased. Therefore, in view of the uncertainties, she decided to return. The stress was great until she received a ticket.
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First, she should buy one on the Internet, but the page specified was overloaded. Finally, Ramona Rüegg received a text message from the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, asking them to reserve a ticket by phone. She received this message because the young woman is registered on the Travel Admin app.
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Ticket cost 850 francs
She received the ticket confirmation on Sunday and the flight started on Monday. Her parents paid 850 francs for it.
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Ramona Rüegg noticed a “sad feeling” in Switzerland after her arrival. She is happy to be home, but has not really arrived yet. At home, she is now in quarantine.
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Contagion risk «extremely low»
She wants to travel to Costa Rica again – on Monday she was in a hurry to say goodbye to her Costa Rican host mother and not to other volunteers.
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A media spokesman for the airline Edelweiss Air said on request on Wednesday that the risk of contracting the virus during a flight was “extremely low”. The planes are equipped with filters that purify the air like in operating rooms.
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By using these special filters, the cabin air is cleaner than the air that man breathes on earth. In addition, the air in aircraft flows from top to bottom, i.e. not sideways and not in the longitudinal direction. (SDA)
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