A man aboard a U.S. Airways flight triggered a scare onboard as he said out loud that he had the Ebola virus.
U.S. Airways flight 850 left Philadelphia at 10 p.m. Wednesday for its destination of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. It arrived there at 1 p.m. local time, but the flight was met by a crew wearing hazmat suits.
The incident was recorded on video by one of the passengers.
"It's going to look worse than it is," said a flight attendant in the video, referring to the event that was about to unfold.
"I think the man who said this is an idiot," she added, referring to the unidentified 54-year-old man that caused the Ebola scare.
The man was picked up by the emergency crew and escorted out, where he was checked and cleared by medical personnel.
According to Dominican newspaper Diario Libre, the man said "I have Ebola, you are all screwed." The man joked that he had recently been to Africa.
The man was found to not have been to Africa, and was not infected by the deadly Ebola virus. Reports did not indicate whether the man will be charged with any offenses for the scare that he caused with his statements.
A statement by U.S. Airways confirmed that flight 850 was met by local officials after the plane landed "due to a possible health issue on board."
"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 statement added.
U.S. Airways did not take a chance that the man's statements had an inkling of truth, as the company alerted the airport security where the plane landed, along with health officials.
The other passengers were stranded inside the airplane and were not allowed to disembark until after two hours from landing, only adding to the inconvenience that the Ebola-joking passenger caused.
Some words such as "bomb" and "explosion" are usually not uttered by travellers in airports and airplanes, as that could lead to severe security checks and scares. "Ebola" is a word that seems to be added on the list of taboo words, especially since the threatening virus is still uncontained.
The Ebola virus has already led to 4,000 deaths, including one which was diagnosed in the United States.
