Braced for Headwinds

At dawn on March 17, Jiang Jia tenderly kissed her sleeping son goodbye and headed out the door quietly. She was flying out from southeast China on a special mission to Wuhan in Hubei Province in central China and wouldn’t see him again for 14 days at least.

The day before, a leading group of China’s novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) response announced a phased withdrawal of medical workers from Hubei, a sign that the epidemic had been brought under control in the hardest-hit region.

As the crew chief of MF8765, a charter flight of Xiamen Airlines, Jiang’s mission was to escort 138 doctors and nurses in Wuhan back to their home city Tianjin near Beijing. The 1 p.m. flight on March 17 was the first of the 21 charter flights