Bjarte Onsrud and his family are on their way home from a family visit to South Africa – but were refused to board the plane in Amsterdam after the Netherlands introduced a flight ban from the country as a result of the new corona variant.
–
– We are sitting here on the plane and waiting to move on. The last we have heard is that you get off the plane and are bussed to a test center, Bjarte says on the phone to VG on Friday just before 13.00.
Together with his wife Abigail Onsrud (32), he and the kids are on their way to Norway after visiting his wife’s family for the first time since Norway and the world closed down.
– We were actually going home to Norway tonight, but we’ll see how it goes.
Just before 15.00, Onsrud writes in a text message that the flight of stairs is on its way to the plane and that the passengers are waiting to be released soon.
At 16.40, Onsrud confirms that the family is finally out of the plane and on their way to the terminal.
On Friday morning, two planes from South Africa landed at Schiphol International Airport in the Netherlands. For the time being, the passengers have not been allowed to get off the planes.
That same morning, the Dutch authorities imposed a flight ban on all flights from southern Africa.
–The family received the news about the new variant last night, and the airport terminal in Johannesburg in South Africa was informed that there could be some changes.
According to Onsrud, they have not received really clear messages about how the Dutch want to handle the passengers on the plane.
– The children start to get impatient after a night on the plane, but we bet that it goes well, says the landlocked family father.
According to the Dutch broadcaster NOS, the 600 passengers on the two planes will receive a PCR test.
The channel writes that they expect to finish the testing at 16.30, which means that the last test answer will be in at 20.30. Until passengers have received a negative test result, they can not leave the airport.
FHI has so far said that it is for early to say something about entry restrictions to Norway when it comes to the countries where the new variant has been provent.
Several countries, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy, have all introduced strict border measures to prevent the spread of the new variant. The European Commission will also stop flights from six countries in southern Africa.
Onsrud hopes it will be nice to get into Norway – once they have clarified the situation in the Netherlands.
– We hope so. We are both fully vaccinated and work in the health care system. They need every man now, he says jokingly to VG.
Now the family is waiting to get food brought on the plane – but according to Onsrud, the flight captain says that the Dutch health authorities will not allow it.
–
