SOME 1,500 Chinese tourists trapped by Super Typhoon Yutu in Saipan yesterday started to fly back home.

A charter flight belonging to Sichuan Airlines arrived in Saipan yesterday morning, which was the first Chinese flight inbound after the local airport resumed from damage.

Yutu, which hit the island territories overnight Wednesday, caused extensive damage to critical infrastructure on Saipan and Tinian islands and displaced many families.

The local airport and port were shut down due to the damage. The airport reopened to civil airplanes yesterday morning, but only allows six flights to pass through yesterday due to infrastructure limitations.

There were five flights of foreign airlines inbound yesterday, according to airport schedule. Besides the flight from Sichuan Airlines, another three Chinese flights also arrived at Saipan International Airport to evacuate Chinese tourists, which were from China Eastern Airlines, Beijing Capital Airlines and Hong Kong Airlines.

Chinese tourists were very excited when they heard the news last night they could fly back home yesterday, said Tom Liu, president of Saipan Travel Inc.

“The evacuation went very well,” said Liu. “Sichuan Airlines and other Chinese airline companies made good preparations for sending flights to Saipan. As soon as the local airport resumed, Chinese flights flew inbound immediately.”

With sustained winds of over 270 km per hour, the powerful storm caused one death and several injuries, tearing up roofs and pulling down trees and power lines in the Marianas.

Chinese movie producer Zhang Yongkun, who was shooting a film with his crew when Yutu landed on the island, told Xinhua via cellphone Friday, “My group are in three hotels, with power supply from the hotels’ generators,” and added “We are safe, we have water and food, but all of us feel nervous. We want to go home.” 

(Xinhua)