Alarm After Vomitting Passenger Dies On Flight From Nigeria To JFK

A plane from Nigeria landed at JFK Airport Thursday with a male passenger aboard who had died during the flight after a fit of vomiting — and CDC officials conducted a “cursory” exam before announcing there was no Ebola and turning the corpse over to Port Authority cops to remove, Rep. Peter King said on Thursday.

The congressman was so alarmed by the incident — and by what he and employees see as troubling Ebola vulnerabilities at JFK — that he fired off a letter to the federal Department of Homeland Security demanding more training and tougher protocols for handling possible cases there.

The unnamed, 63-year-old passenger had boarded an Arik Air plane out of Lagos, Nigeria, on Wednesday night, a federal law enforcement source said.

During the flight, the man had been vomiting in his seat, the source said. Some time before the plane landed, he passed away. Flight crew contacted the CDC, federal customs officials and Port Authority police, who all boarded the plane at around 6 a.m. as about 145 worried passengers remained on board, the source said.

“The door [to the terminal] was left open, which a lot of the first responders found alarming,” said the source.

Rep. King called the protocol followed after the passenger died “alarming.”
Photo: Getty Images

“My understanding was that the passenger was vomiting in the seat,” King (R-LI) said.

“The CDC went on the plane, examined the dead body and said the person did not have Ebola,” King said.

“It was what I was told a cursory examination. The Port Authority cops and personnel from Customs and Border Protection were there, and they were told there was no danger because the person did not have Ebola,” King said.

“But their concern was, how could you tell so quickly? And what adds to the concern is how wrong the CDC has been over the past few weeks.”

Stuff is getting real now!!


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Might not have been vomiting blood? Could have had a heart attack, that makes you vomit, my dad puked A LOT in the ambulance. (The signs and symptoms of coronary heart disease (CHD) may differ ... (feeling sick to the stomach), vomiting, extreme fatigue (tiredness), or problems breathing.) Also if he didn't have any other physical indicators like the reds eyes, it could have been ruled out quickly? I need to go find the post I read about the African non-english speaking man that puked on several passengers...and they want to charge his seatmate for not wanting to sit next to him. If I had been puked on I would have beat the # out of the man... :/

a reply to: Anyafaj

a reply to: Jaxsmash

I agree it could have been anything, bit given the location of where the flight originated, precautions should still have been taken just to be safe. With his age, it could very well have been a heart attack. Again though, you really never know.

this is nuts. there is NO WAY someone from the CDC could determine someone didn't have ebola by just LOOKING at them. even if he wasn't vomiting blood, even if his eyes weren't red. those things don't happen 100% of the time. i'm off to find more info about this.

Sure, he may not have had Ebola - one of the many symptoms is bruising.

But to just leave the body, saying it isn't a threat??

Hello!

It could have been MANY diseases! Anything that acts this quickly on an individual warrants a LITTLE bit more seriousness from the CDC, not just turning the body over to the cops!

The account reads like some surreal movie plot. Snakes on a plane got more play than this nightmare.

originally posted by: Anyafaj
“The CDC went on the plane, examined the dead body and said the person did not have Ebola,” King said.

“It was what I was told a cursory examination. The Port Authority cops and personnel from Customs and Border Protection were there, and they were told there was no danger because the person did not have Ebola,” King said.

“But their concern was, how could you tell so quickly? And what adds to the concern is how wrong the CDC has been over the past few weeks.”

Wow! A "cursory examination"?

How Hospitals Test for Ebola

Thomas Ksiazek, a professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston who has done extensive research on Ebola, says that testing is done using a process called real-time RT-PCR, or reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction.

In this technique, doctors or medical personnel take samples of blood from a patient. They then add an enzyme to convert RNA found in the blood into DNA (RNA is a chemical messenger that helps turn DNA’s “instructions” into proteins). Next, a “primer” is added that targets a string of genetic code unique to the Ebola virus. The concoction is then run through a PCR machine, wherein that strand of Ebola genetic material is amplified, or copied, many times (if it’s there, that is. If it’s not, nothing happens and the test returns a negative.)

Finally, a chemical probe is added that binds to these snippets of DNA and alerts the scientists to the presence of the Ebola virus, Ksiazek tells Newsweek. The whole process can take as little as three to four hours.

Further:

A technique called ELISA can also be used to diagnose Ebola, but it takes longer and also requires at least 100 times more individual viruses for an accurate result to be obtained than RT-PCR...

Or there's this:
Colorado Test For Ebola Could Speed Up Diagnosis To 10 Minutes

Scientists at the company are working on a new test — called a lateral flow dipstick type test — that can identify Ebola in 10 minutes, much faster than current methods that can take three days to diagnose.

Based on that, I'd say that they may have let a plane full of people with Ebola into the general population. Even if he didn't have it, wouldn't a little more caution be prudent. Just... wow.

a reply to: Anyafaj

I hope the lack of concern by the CDC freaks all the people who work out of JFK airport. Hope they start demanding stopping of all flights from W. Africa like 35 other Countries already have.

Des

Strange coincidence this was happening around the time of the Congressional hearings?

Hmmm.

i'll have to check on this again in the morning. so far only i can't find any reputable sources. the new york daily news and the daily mail being the ONLY sources seems fishy to me. rep. king is kind of a nut and has been known to report stuff that can't be verified.

Oh great just what we need. This stuff is going to do a lot of damage and they're making sure it spreads. A cursory exam, that's to cover themselves. Deliberately ignoring public safety because it fits their agenda. Wipe out a lot of people, introduce a solution to the chaos and rule with an iron fist. Sick

originally posted by: pasiphae
i'll have to check on this again in the morning. so far only i can't find any reputable sources. the new york daily news and the daily mail being the ONLY sources seems fishy to me. rep. king is kind of a nut and has been known to report stuff that can't be verified.

I tend to agree on those ends. This Ebola mess is so out of hand, there's actually a Live Update page on BuzzFeed. BUZZFEED!! Seriously! I never thought I'd find sane news on Ebola on the page where you take stupid quizzes about your dang kitties and puppies!!! Is this proof we're all going to Hell? It has to be right? Ok, I'm being funny AND sarcastic about Ebola. I am DEFINITELY going to hell!

Get your cute fluffy Ebola here!

Where any politicians or CDC workers around? What's it going to take for them to do something?! Just wishful thinking. you know shut down that plane, properly take care of the people who were on it, just in case. Wishful thinking but it's probably too late. And how the OP article says:

“But their concern was, how could you tell so quickly? And what adds to the concern is how wrong the CDC has been over the past few weeks.”

originally posted by: pasiphae
this is nuts. there is NO WAY someone from the CDC could determine someone didn't have ebola by just LOOKING at them. even if he wasn't vomiting blood, even if his eyes weren't red. those things don't happen 100% of the time. i'm off to find more info about this.

Unless there was a obvious other reason why he was vomiting.

The examination could have revelled a health problem that clearly caused the vomiting and death.

originally posted by: pasiphae
i'll have to check on this again in the morning. so far only i can't find any reputable sources. the new york daily news and the daily mail being the ONLY sources seems fishy to me. rep. king is kind of a nut and has been known to report stuff that can't be verified.

Thanks, will look into it. In this case, hope it's just hype!

Not sure of this site .... but here's a link: Alarm after vomiting passenger dies on flight from Nigeria to JFK



This on seems better: Man's death aboard plane from Africa briefly sparks Ebola fears in New York

A man died on a plane from Nigeria landing at Kennedy Airport in Queens early Thursday, sparking fears that the deadly Ebola virus had finally touched down in New York, sources said.

Centers for Disease Control and Health Department members in protective gear swarmed the Arik Air flight landing at JFK’s Terminal 4 after the 63-year-old man, a U.S. citizen, died on the plane about an hour before landing at 5:45 a.m.

The plane had departed from Lagos, officials said.

The man, who was traveling alone, was vomiting and complaining of chest pains before he died of an apparent heart attack, a Port Authority source said.

That's all I could find.

a reply to: blackcatmagic

The second link as better and more thorough. It states he was clutching his chest, which seems to indicate heart attack, not Ebola. Thanks BlackCatMagic!

The only way they could have known so quickly if he had Ebola so quickly or not, was if he ate the airline food.

Seriously though, the sloths at the CDC and WHO need to keep people local. No more flighing about, we managed 100 years ago without taking planes, we are all susceptible to this. Our fancy western way of life will not defeat this. It must be forced to burn out, the infected need to relegate themselves to death - or hopefully survive it on their own. it is no longer wise, nor fair to have nurses tend to the infected.

I hope everyone eventually gets that squiggly lined virus burned into their brains and start thinking about your families, friends, countries you love. A global effort is need now, no more 'looking into' crap, NOW!

a reply to: Anyafaj

I can see one reason behind it. Make it appear ironic to follow Ebola. Enough hipsters and yuppies (Buzzfeed's biggest group of followers) will laugh at the latest Ebola updates like they've laughed everything else off. No one will think twice when it hits their hometown because it's just another laughing matter.

Our planet is doomed.

It probably was Ebola. In the past forty eight years I have never heard of someone vomiting and dying on a plane. Now suddenly this is happening daily. We don't need anything from Africa, at least not for three to five years.