Sick Passengers Removed From Emirates Plane In Boston
BOSTON (CBS) – Five passengers with flu-like symptoms were removed from an Emirates flight that landed in Boston Monday afternoon.
Ambulances and emergency crews met Flight 237 from Dubai at Logan Airport. Medical crews wearing protective clothing boarded the plane and walked the ill passengers off. The sick passengers were transported to Mass. General Hospital and Boston Medical Center.
The remaining 182 passengers and 19 crew members were allowed to get off the plane after approximately three hours. Everyone on board cleared customs.
"They did the right thing," passenger Venkatesh Madurai said. "You need to be 100 percent sure when you have something like this."
Family members who had loved ones on the plane say the wait was nerve-wracking. "I just spoke with my wife, she said some old man behind her has been coughing for 14 hours," said Bashar Agha who was waiting at Logan Airport.
No one on the plane came from West African nations at the center of the Ebola outbreak.
The Boston Public Health Commission has determined that the patients who arrived on the Emirates flight do not meet the criteria for any infections of public health concern, including Ebola, meningococcal infection, or MERS.
Earlier on Monday, the BPHC held a briefing on city wide Ebola guidance, saying that the city has investigated three or four possible Ebola cases in recent weeks.
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