Scores of passengers taken ill on flight to New York

AS MANY as 100 passengers and crew reported feeling ill during an Emirates flight from Dubai to New York yesterday, and health workers were evaluating them as the aeroplane sat on the tarmac of JFK International Airport.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said about 100 people complained of feeling sick on Emirates Flight 203, which landed with at least 521 passengers shortly after 9am at JFK. Symptoms included coughing and fever.

Earlier, Dubai-based Emirates said in a statement that 10 passengers “were taken ill” on the flight and were taken to a hospital. It did not specify the symptoms or nature of the complaints.

The aeroplane involved was a double-decker Airbus A388, the world’s largest passenger aircraft.

CDC public health officers were working with other agencies to evaluate passengers, including taking temperatures and making arrangements for transport to hospitals, spokesman Benjamin Haynes said.

Passengers who were not ill were allowed to continue with their travel plans, he said.

Some sick passengers were taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Centre with nonlife-threatening conditions, according to a New York City Fire Department spokesman.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had been briefed on the incident, his spokesman Eric Phillips wrote on Twitter.

Larry Cohen, who identified himself as one of the passengers on the plane, uploaded photos on Twitter showing dozens of police and emergency vehicles waiting outside the aeroplane on the tarmac.

“All we have been told is that there are some sick passengers and that we need to remain on board,” Mr Cohen told Reuters via Twitter.