Guernsey Press

Plane quarantined in New York after reports of sick passengers

Officials said 10 people – three passengers and seven crew members – ended up in hospital after what was described as ‘like the plane from hell’.

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A plane from Dubai caused a scare on Wednesday after a pilot radioed it would be landing at New York’s Kennedy Airport carrying several passengers and crew members who fell ill with flu-like symptoms.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) immediately quarantined the double-decker Emirates aircraft, holding 520 passengers, so it could evaluate about 100 of them.

Some complained about coughs, headaches, sore throats and fevers.

Officials said 10 people – three passengers and seven crew members – ended up in hospital in what Emirates called a “precaution”.

The rest were cleared to continue their travels while the CDC sought to determine what caused the sickness.

Video from news helicopters showed the jet stranded on the tarmac for several minutes before passengers began to emerge so they could board buses to get to the terminal.

Vanilla Ice, real name Robert Van Winkle, posted a video on Facebook of an emergency response to an initial report that dozens of people could be sick.

On Twitter, he described looking out the window to see several ambulances, fire trucks and police vehicles converge on the plane.

He also wrote the sick people were seated on the “bottom floor” of the jumbo jet, “so I’m happy I’m up top.”

Another traveler in the business class section of the aircraft, Raghida Dergham, also said in an interview that sick passengers were in a “lower level” economy section of the plane.

“I feel great. I feel fine,” Ms Dergham said. “Nobody was alarmed… It was handled very well.”

But other passengers said they suspected some passengers were sick before they got on the plane and blamed the airline for not doing more to protect the health of others.

“Why did they allow them on the flight? I sat with them for 13 hours. If it’s a virus, we’re all getting sick,” said Srinivasa Rao.

Passenger Erin Sykes posted a video of officers in masks and gloves taking the temperature of passengers on the tarmac.

In an interview, Ms Sykes said she saw a few passengers being taken off the plane first for medical attention, but she added “many, many” others were showing signs of illness.

“Very intense coughing. Violently sick. Going into the bathroom a lot,” she said when asked to describe the scene.

She added: “These people should know not to travel in a confined space with other healthy people.”

Another passenger, Zeph Shamba, said he saw at least one man on the 14-hour flight coughing and vomiting.

“People were worried because we don’t know what it is. And we get down there and guys with masks on their noses and stuff like that,” Mr Shamba said.

“It’s like the plane from hell.”

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