Multiple news outlets on Feb. 5 reported that about 104 Indian nationals were repatriated. They were flown from Texas to Amritsar, Punjab, India. They were flown on a US C17 transport plane. This plane is capable of carrying 85 tons and costs $28,500 per hour to operate. If each deportee weighed 200 pounds, which is unlikely, a total of just over 10 tons of “cargo” was hauled on this flight. Flying from San Antonio — the actual departure city in Texas was not reported — to the Indian destination takes 17 hours each way. The total cost, then, for this transportation is $969,000, or $9,317 per deportee. If Elon Musk is looking for waste, fraud and abuse he should look into this program.

David Lancaster

Nottingham