One Passenger Quarantines International Flight
February 13, 2012, Submitted by: Ken Tweet
image: TVnz
A passenger on a flight from Japan to New Zealand commented to the flight crew of noticing other passengers with flu-like symptoms, sounding the alarm and prompting a quarantine when the flight landed some hours later.
As it turns out, there were approximately 70 Japanese ‘homestay students’ onboard, who became suspected of carrying an ‘unkown’ influenza upon a passenger ‘sounding the alarm’. Once the flight landed, and hours afterward, health authorities boarded the jet and began checking passengers for symptoms and sending groups of people into different locations for evaluation.
“The man running the homestay trip, Stuart Cundy of Let’s Homestay, told ONE News (New Zealand) he understands only a few of the students showed visible flu like symptoms, and from that another passenger raised the alarm.”
New Zealand — A health scare on a flight from Japan to New Zealand appears to be nothing more serious than a seasonal outbreak of influenza.
About 60 passengers traveling on a flight from Tokyo to Auckland arrived Monday morning complaining of flulike symptoms, sparking a swift response from health authorities.
But by midmorning, New Zealand’s Health Minister Tony Ryall put out a statement saying “there’s nothing to suggest it’s anything other than seasonal flu.”
The flight, which arrived at 9:20 a.m., was carrying 274 passengers, who were initially told to stay onboard while crews of medical staff wearing masks assessed their health.
Source: Associated Press
Evidently, a single passenger complaint or judgement of another passengers apparent health, can get a jet airliner quarantined and detained for hours, no matter the qualifications of the person-passenger raising the alarm.
Common sense has been thrown out the window it seems, when it comes to airline travel these days (years). First you stand in line waiting to be interrogated, poked and prodded, scanned, and then herded to your ‘seats’. Then, while being careful what you do or say, don’t even think about sneezing or coughing, else you become suspect of carrying a plague or something… followed by potential quarantine, the result of which will likely get you put on a ‘list’ somewhere.
When I first read the news stories that popped out regarding this incident, it appeared that 25% of the passengers on board suddenly came down with a horrible illness (implying that something sinister had happened). Upon further digging, we find out that it was simply the result of a few kids who were sick, having been pointed out by some panicking passenger. This then results in all the chaos and subsequent untold cost of the disaster response teams, as well as the great inconvenience brought on to the other passengers.
Madness…
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@Ken; Yes, I believe I would be looking for the “do gooder” so that I could commence some “terroristic” ass whoopin’ as opposed to just a threat. Snicker. Yeah, where do you draw the line between good citizen doing their civic duty versus a nosy busybody being a rectum? It’s kind of hard to say. Logically, if you are on a plane with someone infected with “something” and it’s contagious, then you may already have it if it’s spreading. Of course in the larger scheme of things, it would be your duty to say something to prevent the spread of the disease to a larger part of the population. It’s always a balance between public safety, privacy and minding your own damn business. Sometimes common sense is lacking. I went to a local fast food restaurant (national chain, local franchise) and having been a safety manager in the military, I noticed that out on the playground one of the vertical bars that was in the security fence around the play area was loose at the top and had fallen over to the side and made a VEE shaped opening in the fence. This is very dangerous in that a child climbing on the fence could get their head through the upper part of the VEE where it is wider and slip and fall and have their neck compressed, choking them or worse, breaking their neck and all in very short order before anyone could help. I went in and explained it very slowly and carefully to the manager on duty and that it needed to be fixed. The short version is that I did this three times. The first two just like above and the third time I had to get the franchise owner’s name and number and threaten to help the parents of any child hurt there by testifying in a lawsuit against him and that if it wasn’t fixed very soon, the next time I would call the police and file a police report just so it would be on record that it had been brought to this attention. It was fixed in less than a week. Common sense should have prevailed the first time I mentioned it, but alas, no. When is too much. I don’t know. I prefer that people mind their own effing business unless children are involved and even then it should be done with a great deal of hesitancy. I remember Kathy Ireland was on Leno and was gushing about how she made a “citizens arrest” on a woman that “spanked” her child at the grocery store. I guess you can do that in Kalifornia. If she tried that sh*t here she would be arrested, not to mention the ass whoopin she would get as I “defended” myself. Not to mention the lawsuit that would follow. Unless people were bleeding from their eye sockets, I don’t think I would have mentioned the sick people on the plane. I think less is more in the “good citizen” department and it certainly deserves some intelligent thought process before “going off” about something. Survive well. Enjoy.
This is probably the most conflicting article you ever posted. You like to use common sense, but IF there is a patient zero with a 99% fatality rate virus then containing it can save humanity, at least temporarily. It is kind of like Stephen King’s The Stand in which IF the family at been held within that research facility most of the planet would not have died. Science fiction of of course, but also science fact. The real issue here is how often does something like this happen. Pathogens scare the hell out of me, and someone on a plane that is infected has likely infected many other people at the airport terminal. Of course an airplane is very confined and there is a possibility that only the people on the plane would be infected and there is some chance of containing some plague by quarantining everyone. This is an extremely difficult decision to make.
In my opinion someone travelling on an airplane that is “very sick” should not be allowed to board period, it is completely selfish and rotten to possibly infect others, it is like someone that coughs with the flu without putting their hand over their mouth. It is called irresponsibility to actually be sick and expose others just because someone has to go someone. It really riles me that some people are so selfish that they expose hundreds of people to their sickness just so they can do whatever they want to. Maybe ocasionally someone that is truly sick and inconsiderate of others should be quarantined, might teach them a lesson to stay at home and get well and or cover up their mouth and germs next time. I don’t know how much madness it is considering the implications of a true patient zero. There is an extremely fine line with common sense here.
@Bi, You are entitled to your opinion. With regard to the article in question, its purpose and context is to point out the absurdity of the apparent likelihood of an airliner getting quarantined because a few people on board, during flu season, happen to show symptoms. Having said that, it is indeed quite upsetting to go to work (or anywhere public) and encounter someone who is obviously sick and should be at home. I don’t know what the passenger on this flight said, but, I believe the resulting action taken by the ‘authorities’ went way, way, overboard. We already live in a police-state. This just adds to the list.
@ Ken. Exactly why I said there is an extremely fine line here. I agree we live in a police state already, but there are times when alarm is justified. I just wish we know what can of symptoms this person was showing. I sure would not want to be on an airline and have someone with that type of antibiotic resistant TB coughing and hacking away. Airline cabins are very confined and germs can be spread much easier than say in the mall. There is also something disturbing about this that I don’t think you might have thought of. What IF there is some sort of untold bug out there that only certain governments know about and this person was showing the tell-tale signs of it? I agree with you it is overboard, but what IF there is much, much more to this story that we are being told?
@Bi, “What-if’s” can drive one crazy…
That’s why I do my best to use reasonable judgement as a filter prior to setting off my internal alarms.
@ Ken. IF we start seeing more of this, we have a problem, a BIG problem. This could have just been an isolated incidence of ignorance, but maybe not. You know as I do what patient zero means, and people are so unclean and inconsiderate of others. I would rather try to live through the aftermath of a nuclear war than I would some 12 Monkeys movie type of plague. Often I will get out of line with someone hacking away and they will look at me like I did something terrible. I have been quite sick before from not practicing caution with germs and it is awful. I am sure you personally have phobias to certain things like I do, one of mine is germs. Unless you or I was on that plane we really don’t know the real reason why they either over reacted or they had some sound reason to. I wish I knew.
@Ken.
It is absurd to quarantine a plane for this. What will it be next? A couple of travelers get drunk. Someone complains. The whole bunch off to detox?
It also won’t stop a pandemic. If somebody wanted to survive a pandemic they would do well to stay away from sick people. Far away. Might be for months.
Be well.
@ Mortimer. I don’t think it would stop a panademic either, but I have seen many shows on establishing a ring type line of defense should something like smallpox develops, and this would be quarantining areas back to patient zero. I know that if I terrorist with something like smallpox, it could possibly be stopped. I am more interested to know the truth, was this just some stupid retarded move or is there something behind this? If someone was really sick with blisters all over their face I sure would not want anyone off that plane. Common sense is something that is lacking here, maybe. I think we all need more facts to determine if someone was making a bonehead move.
Remember the anthrax attacks? The first person to die they said he got it from fishing or somewhere in the outdoors, this was wrong. Then after they found it in the mail, people were going around seeing anthrax everywhere, even outside bakeries where flour had dropped. It probably was someone seeing gremlins on a plane, but who knows, need more facts. Hope all is well with you.
@ Be informed.
A “ring type defense” won’t work. Don’t think it ever has worked. Good luck finding patient zero. Takes a high level of technology. Even when they claim to have done so, there are doubts.
Blisters on the face, etc suggest plague. Run.
Anthrax really doesn’t concern me. If you ever lived around livestock it is likely. Has been lethal in the cities. Not smart enough to take antibiotics.
I am hoping that I never need to fly again. Unless it’s the busty blond groping me.
Be well.
@ Mortimer. Very funny about the blonde. I to hope I never have to fly ever again. I totally agree with you and Ken that flying and dealing with the police state about the way they treat everyone whom is NOT the terrorist. You made me laugh, it is never the extremely attractive women doing the checking of the passengers, it is the ones with the big jaws and massive foreheads like a Neanderthal named Helga that do the groping and you have nightmares for a week afterwards.