Sick Continental Passengers Left on Tarmac for Two Hours

By Erin Peterson

A Continental Airlines flight arriving from Hong Kong was left on the tarmac at Newark Liberty International Airport for nearly two hours on Monday. The flight crew began to worry during the flight when many passengers exhibited and complained of flu-like symptoms. Airline officials contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to investigate the possibility of avian flu before allowing passengers to enter the airport.

Two hundred seventy two passengers left Hong Kong on Continental Flight 98. Dave Messing with Continental Airlines reports that, after take-off, cabin crew members noticed that several passengers appeared ill and notified United States health authorities.

CDC spokeswoman Karen Hunter tells reporters that seven passengers felt the flu-like symptoms before boarding the plane. During the 15-hour flight, many other passengers began exhibiting similar symptoms. Hunter did not have an exact final number of sick passengers.

Health officials with the CDC’s Global Migration and Quarantine office at LaGuardia Airport were sent to the Newark airport to investigate the reports. The emergency medical services crew boarded the plane and interviewed all passengers. According to Shelly Diaz of the CDC in Atlanta, "They asked (them) about their symptoms, and whether they had been exposed to any sick or dead poultry or birds."

After completing their interviews, medical crew members determined that the symptoms were consistent with a typical seasonal influenza virus and that no cause for further concern was warranted.

Officials and reporters learned that many of the sick travelers were part of a tour group returning to Canada after a 21-day visit to China. The group traveled in seven busses and visited the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square, Shanghai and other cities as well as taking a four-day cruise along the Yangtze River. Passengers were scheduled to change planes in Newark to head to their final destination of Montreal.

Passengers on board the plane were not aware of any major problem until they arrived at the airport and were told that health officials would need to check on the sick travelers before anyone could disembark. Though they were not alarmed, passengers were eager to get off the plane after the 15-hour flight.

Passenger John Thompson said, "Like everyone else, I just wanted to get off the airplane. Everyone was calm, though. We weren’t held hostage."

While health officials were relieved that the episode was a false alarm for avian flu, it did offer a trial run for New Jersey’s Pandemic Flu Plan. The state Department of Health and Senior Services, the State Police, and local health agencies are all involved in this coordinated emergency planning process.

Had medical workers suspected avian flu, passengers would have been quarantined at the airport or taken to the hospital. Health officials in the U.S. have been worried about avian flu reaching the country since 2004. Three hundred cases and 167 deaths from bird flu have been reported in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Near East in recent years.