Chennai, May 9 (IANS): Two Air India Express flights commanded by women took off on Saturday, to evacuate stranded Indians from foreign shores. While one flight took off from Trichy in Tamil Nadu, the other flight left from Kochi in Kerala.

Coincidentally, the rescue mission comes on May 9, a day ahead of Mothers Day, which falls on Sunday. The two women commanders who are mothers themselves took off a day before the Mother's Day - May 9.

The rescue flight that took off from Trichy airport to Kuala Lumpur at about 1.11 p.m. was commanded by Captain Kavitha Rajkumar while Captain Bindhu Sebastian was the commander for Kochi - Muscat - Kochi flight that took off at about 1.17 p.m. the same time, said an Air India Express official.

The two flights are expected to return to India on Saturday late evening.

Over the past few days, following outbreak of COVID-19, India has launched one of the biggest air and sea evacuation operations for bringing back stranded Indians from different countries.