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Sick Passenger On Quarantined Newark Flight Cleared Of Ebola
By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 5, 2014
Modified Oct 5, 2014
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 5, 2014
Modified Oct 5, 2014
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The sick passenger whose illness stirred an Ebola panic and caused his plane to be quarantined at Newark Airport for several hours on Saturday has been told he does not have Ebola. United Airlines Flight 998, which had been traveling from Brussels, landed in Newark just after noon yesterday, and was sealed at Gate 54. All 255 passengers and 14 crew members onboard had to remain there for nearly two hours while officials investigated.
"They told us there was a guy sick. In the first place, they told us that it wasn’t an infectious disease and then they were just being very cautious of things," a passenger named Thomas told CBS. Most passengers sounded frustrated with the situation: "Everyone was very calm, it just dragged on for quite a long time without any real answers," said passenger Bob McCray. "They kept holding us and holding us and holding us without much information," added passenger Douglas Schoch.
The 35-year-old sick passenger, who has been vomiting during the flight, and his daughter were both taken off the plane and transported to University Hospital in Newark for medical treatment. The sick man, whose name hasn't been released, had come from Liberia via a connection in Brussels; he was wearing a surgical mask when he was removed from the plane by CDC officials in full body protection.
It was announced later that the sick man was ill from a "minor treatable condition unrelated to Ebola," according to N.J. Department of Health spokeswoman Donna Leusner
It wasn't quite over for the other 253 passengers though: the rest of those onboard were screened by the CDC when they got off the plane, and were given forms to fill out about symptoms. "Frankly, they made it up as they went along. First they said get out of here, we almost got out. Nope, wait, then we filled out a form which the airline has all this information anyway,” one annoyed passenger told CBS. "The only thing they asked you is to fill in papers and then they don’t know what to do with the papers. It’s amazing that after all these diseases, they still don’t have a clue how to handle this," another said.
CDC spokesman Benjamin Haynes noted, "CDC coordinated with federal, state, local, and hospital officials to ensure all precautionary protocols were followed."
This wasn't the only airport incident on Saturday: Terminal 8 at JFK was put on lockdown for nearly an hour when an unidentified man walked past security screeners without being checked.
Tagged
airplane
ebola
flight
liberia
newark
sick
vomiting
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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