56 American experts arrive in Vietnam on special flight

The group landed at Da Nang International Airport on Hawaii Airlines flight A33 via Incheon International Airport in South Korea. The experts, deployed to locate the remains of MIA (missing in action) U.S. soldiers, were allowed to enter Vietnam for humanitarian purposes by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Nhan Dan Online reported.

All were transferred to a hotel in Son Tra District for 14-day quarantine and had their samples taken for coronavirus testing as per Health Ministry protocols.

The search for missing U.S. soldiers from the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975, has been an ongoing humanitarian activity overseen by Vietnam since 1988.

Scores of soldiers' remains have been repatriated since 1973.

An estimated 1,200 Americans are still unaccounted for.

Vietnam has suspended all inbound international commercial flights since March 2020, though the government has been operating repatriation flights to bring home Vietnamese citizens stuck abroad amid the pandemic, and has allowed special flights to carry foreign experts and investors to the country.

The government has limited inbound flights in light of new variants of the novel coronavirus spreading fast in many countries. Only special cases approved by the government can enter the country.

Vietnam has recorded 791 Covid-19 cases in 13 localities since the new community outbreak started on Jan. 28.