MORE than 400 Australians are due to touch down in Germany today having fled strife-torn Egypt. The Australian Federal Government-chartered Qantas flight 6020 is due to arrive in Frankfurt at 7.30pm on Wednesday (5.30am tomorrow AEST) carrying 412 passengers, an airline spokeswoman said today.
The 747 jumbo could be seen waiting on Frankfurt's terminal two tarmac, from where it will leave for a round-trip to Cairo tomorrow - a flight of some three-and-a-half hours each way.
On its return Australian consular officials are due to meet the flight, on which Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said more than 400 Australians had registered to fly.
Twenty-seven Australians have already flown to Germany aboard two Canadian emergency flights from Cairo, where deadly protests against President Hosni Mubarak's regime continue to rage.
About 1200 Australians have registered their presence in Egypt with the Cairo embassy and Mr Rudd said consideration would be given to chartering a second evacuation flight.
Massive tides of peaceful protesters flooded Cairo and Egypt's second city Alexandria yesterday in the biggest outpouring yet of defiance in their relentless drive to oust Mr Mubarak.
Several hundred thousand demonstrators massed in Cairo's Tahrir Square, protest epicentre for a "march of a million" set for the capital, and similar numbers turned out in Alexandria.
The Australian Government has welcomed a statement from the Egyptian army saying it will not fire on protesters, who are seeking President Mubarak's resignation after 30 years of autocratic rule.
The violent and deadly protests, which have seen much of Cairo shut-down - including public transport and telecommunication systems - are not believed to have claimed any Australian lives.
Back in Australia Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop has asked why Australia was slow to respond to the crisis, stating that "contingency planning" should have been underway some time ago.
Mr Rudd defended the Government's actions, saying that operating conditions, including the collapsed telecommunications network, had put great pressure on officials.
Australians wanting to be evacuated from Egypt have been urged to call DFAT in Canberra (+612613305) after the embassy's phone system crashed.
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MORE than 400 Australians are due to touch down in Germany today having fled strife-torn Egypt. 
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