Citizens who had been stranded in the Middle East due to the war between the United States and Israel and Iran returned home on a military transport plane deployed by the government.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Defense on the 15th, a single Air Force KC-330 Cygnus multi-role aerial refueling transport carrying a total of 211 people—204 Koreans, five foreign-national family members, and two Japanese nationals—landed at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam at about 5:59 p.m. that day.
Cygnus, which departed Korea on the morning of the 14th, arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that afternoon (local time) and left in the evening for Korea with the passengers on board.
Koreans staying in Saudi Arabia, as well as Kuwait, Bahrain, and Lebanon, gathered in Riyadh to board the transport plane.
Koreans staying in Kuwait traveled to Riyadh by bus under the guidance of the local embassy, and those staying in Lebanon are known to have arrived in Riyadh by air.
For this operation, named "Light of the Desert," the government sought overflight cooperation from about 10 countries along the transport route and dispatched a rapid response team to the site, led by former Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Lee Jae-ung as Director General.
Along with Air Force pilots, an elite special operations unit of Air Force combat control team (CCT) members responsible for safety, as well as about 30 personnel including maintenance and medical staff, accompanied Cygnus.
Earlier, for Koreans staying in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, the government secured operation of commercial and charter flights through diplomatic talks, and it judged that this has partially resolved the issue of short-term stayers in the UAE and Qatar.
However, there were still citizens staying in other Middle Eastern countries within the sphere of the war's impact who could not easily move to the UAE or Qatar, and it was reported that, after much deliberation, the government decided to deploy a military transport plane to Riyadh.
The government consulted with local airlines and Korean Air Lines on sending commercial or charter flights to Riyadh, but decided to deploy a transport plane in consideration of safety issues.
This is the seventh time that Cygnus, of which the Air Force operates a total of four, has been deployed to transport Koreans overseas. The most recent case was in 2024, when it was sent to Lebanon—where Israel's ground operation against Hezbollah was underway—and brought back 96 citizens and others.
Taking into account relevant regulations and local conditions, the government plans to charge passengers of the military transport plane an expense of around 880,000 won per adult.