Francisco Javier Martínez had been under no illusions as to the exceptional nature of flight PLM471P, but it was only as his 747 neared its destination that the captain realised exactly what he, the crew and a small team of British military medics were approaching.
“Wuhan looked like a desert; there wasn’t a car on the motorway and the airport was totally empty,” he said of his arrival last Friday.
“It was as if a bomb had gone off and left the city totally empty. No people, no cars, no movement, nothing. It was all a bit overwhelming. This was all a bit bigger than we’d thought.”
Martínez, 61, who has been a pilot for 40 years, received the call on Monday morning from his employers at Wamos Air. Would he be willing to captain the charter flight to bring home 120 people, most of them British and Spanish, from the Chinese city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak?
The mission was voluntary, but Martínez said yes, as did three other Wamos pilots, 13 cabin crew, two mechanics and a loadmaster.
What is the virus causing illness in Wuhan?
It is a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals, or possibly seafood. New and troubling viruses usually originate in animal hosts. Ebola and flu are examples.
What other coronaviruses have there been?
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers) are both caused by coronaviruses that came from animals.
What are the symptoms of the Wuhan coronavirus?
The virus causes pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work. If people are admitted to hospital, they may get support for their lungs and other organs as well as fluids. Recovery will depend on the strength of their immune system. Many of those who have died are known to have been already in poor health.
Is the virus being transmitted from one person to another?
Human to human transmission has been confirmed by China’s national health commission. As of 3 February, 361 people have died in China, and one in the Philippines. Confirmed infections in China are 17,238, and the official Chinese figures include Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Outside of China, infections stand at more than 150.
Two members of one family have been confirmed to have the virus in the UK, after more than 160 were tested and found negative. The actual number to have contracted the virus could be far higher as people with mild symptoms may not have been detected. Modelling by World Health Organization (WHO) experts at Imperial College London suggests there could be as many as 100,000 cases, with uncertainty putting the margins between 30,000 and 200,000.
How worried are the experts?
There were fears that the coronavirus might spread more widely during the week-long lunar new year holidays, which start on 24 January, when millions of Chinese travel home to celebrate, but the festivities have largely been cancelled and Wuhan and other Chinese cities are in lockdown.
At what point should you go to the doctor if you have a cough, say?
Unless you have recently travelled to China or been in contact with someone infected with the virus, then you should treat any cough or cold symptoms as normal. The NHS advises that there is generally no need to visit a doctor for a cough unless it is persistent or you are having other symptoms such as chest pain, difficulty breathing or you feel very unwell.
Should we panic?
No. The spread of the virus outside China is worrying but not an unexpected development. It increases the likelihood that the World Health Organization will declare the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern on Thursday evening. The key concerns are how transmissible this new coronavirus is between people and what proportion become severely ill and end up in hospital.
Sarah Boseley Health editor and Hannah Devlin
At 6pm on Tuesday, the jumbo jet took off from Madrid’s Barajas airport, bound for Hanoi where it would make a stopover. Also onboard were four British specialist military doctors who had joined the mission in the Spanish capital.
“The British medics had told us how to put on our masks and gloves, and briefed us on the virus and how it was transmitted,” said Martínez.
“They told us that it was a serious business but not a dangerous one: the main thing was to treat it with respect. I told the crew that this had to be serious but that it could also be fun.”
After a 20-hour rest in Hanoi, the plane headed for Wuhan.
“We knew from the beginning that we had embarked on something important, but when we flew from Hanoi to Wuhan, it sunk in that we were on a very important rescue mission,” said the pilot. “We were a lifeboat for a group of people who needed to get out of Wuhan.”
When they landed in Wuhan at 4.59am on Friday, they were greeted by a ghost city and two Chinese officials buried in layers of protective clothing. The Wamos crew, wearing their own masks and gloves, stayed on the plane as equipment from the British government was unloaded.
And then the passengers began to board.
“For them, it was as if they were coming home and leaving it all behind,” said Martínez.
Careful note was taken of who was sitting where so that anyone displaying symptoms of coronavirus – and those around them – could be isolated. The flight from Wuhan to Brize Norton took 11 hours and 40 minutes and was, according to the pilot, “very pleasant and rather beautiful” because of the skies through which they were flying.
“The crew were always checking to see if people were OK and calm, and whether there were any cases,” he said.
“But people were relaxed – like the worst was behind them. The Britons and the British medics got off at Brize Norton and the Spanish doctors came aboard there and we flew back to Torrejón [air base, just outside Madrid]. All the passengers were really happy and excited to be back on their own soil, even though they knew they were going to be in quarantine for a while.”
Martínez and his crew are on leave but have not been required to go into quarantine. While he is a little shocked by the fanfare, he is delighted that his team’s efforts have been recognised.
“My biggest memory of all this will be of a crew that worked together beautifully,” he said.
“They were more like a family than a crew. When I address a crew, I call them family. What started off as a flight crew, became a team and ended up being like a family.”
By Saturday lunchtime, the week’s excitement was beginning to recede and the pilot had firmly entered the airspace of the familiar and the domestic.
“A friend jokingly told me I was a hero and I said, ‘No, I was just doing my job’. But I guess this goes beyond a job. Sometimes it’s like being a priest or a firefighter. But anyway, it’s back to normality now. I’m going shopping and then I’ll help my wife make lunch.”
