Officials not amused by airline passenger's claimed Ebola joke, send hazmat team onto plane
Updated: After sneezing Wednesday on a U.S. Airways flight en route to the Dominican Republic from Philadelphia, a passenger allegedly made a joke on a subject that is no laughing matter.
Accounts differ as to what exactly the unidentified man said, but it appears he may have stated he had recently been to Africa, which those seated nearby understood as a suggestion that he could have Ebola.
Once the plane was on the tarmac in Punta Cana, a hazmat team in hooded blue protective suits with clear plastic face masks came aboard and removed him as other passengers videotaped the incident. It was later determined that the man did not have a temperature and did not test positive for the deadly disease, CNN reports.
The Associated Press reports that the man was then sent back from the airport to the U.S., where he apparently lives.
As of Friday, a YouTube video of the hazmat team in action had been viewed more than 2.5 million times.
“We are following the direction of, and strictly adhering to, all Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines in place for airlines in response to the Ebola virus,” the airline said in a written statement.
Fox News Latino, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Bad Latitude blog, Slate, USA Today and the Washington Post (reg. req.) have stories.
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Arrested for misdemeanor, man now faces felony case over claimed false Ebola statements at jail”
Associated Press: “Ebola screening measures rest on federal law”
Updated at 4:15 p.m. to link to subsequent ABAJournal.com post.
