MUMBAI: While several repatriation missions are carried out by Air India to evacuate the Indians stranded in foreign countries  amid the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, new cases of Coronavirus reported on Sunday are a cause of major concern for the airline company.

According to the sources, five pilots of Air India have been tested positive for COVID-19. It is said that the pilots were tested one after another. However, it is also suspected by many in the department that it could be a case of faulty testing kit. 

A source reported that the five pilots fly Boeing 787 planes. However, another senior official of Air India informed that none of the five pilots had operated any flights in the last three weeks. 

He further said that these new positive cases came to notice over a period of time as all pilots are tested 72 hours before they are supposed to take off. As per the latest reports it is said they are all asymptomatic, but all of them took flights to China.