At least one ill passenger was pulled off an airplane that arrived at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport from Brussels today by federal health officials and emergency responders, amid fears of Ebola spreading in the U.S.
Passengers on United Airlines flight 998 were kept in their seats for almost two hours as quarantine officers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed the sick person from the plane, according to statements by the CDC and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
“The flight ended at 12:15 p.m.,” said Erica Dumas, a Port Authority spokeswoman, in a telephone interview. The CDC and EMS “responded and evaluated the situation.”
The passenger was vomiting on the plane, one of the early symptoms associated with Ebola. He was taken to University Hospital in Newark, Dumas said. The spokeswoman couldn’t confirm if the passenger or a daughter traveling with him came from West Africa, where an Ebola outbreak is raging, or if medical officials were testing him for the deadly virus.
A spokesman at CDC headquarters in Atlanta said he didn’t yet know if Ebola was suspected in the case. “We did go to the plane to assess it,” said Jason McDonald. “That happens; it happens regularly. Someone will come in sick, and a quarantine station officer will meet them and take them off” and get them medical care if it’s needed.
He said the agency was awaiting information from the local quarantine officer before making further statements.
The plane, a Boeing 777 with a capacity of 266, was unloaded at 1:50 p.m., according to Dumas. “They were taking all precautions,” he said. It wasn’t clear if the passengers were sent to another location, or allowed to continue their trips.
A call and an e-mail to United were not immediately returned.
Worries about the virus, which has infected about 7,500 people in Africa, killing half, have escalated in the U.S. after Thomas Eric Duncan, recently in Liberia in West Africa, flew to Dallas, where he showed symptoms and was eventually confirmed as having the deadly disease.
Duncan tested positive for Ebola on Sept. 30 and is in critical condition at a Dallas hospital. He arrived in the U.S. on Sept. 20, started showing symptoms on Sept. 24 and was not isolated until Sept. 28. He is now listed in critical condition, downgraded from serious.