As many as 100 passengers and crew on board an Emirates flight have become ill and detained at New York’s JFK airport.
About 100 people complained of feeling sick on Emirates Flight 203, which landed with at least 521 passengers on Wednesday at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement.
Dubai-based Emirates said in a statement that 10 people ‘were taken ill’ on the flight from Dubai and were transported to a nearby hospital in Queens ‘as a precaution.’
It is unclear what the symptoms or nature of the complaints were.
‘After being initially evaluated at the airport, the patients, which included three passengers and seven crew members, were transported to Jamaica Hospital where they were immediately isolated and evaluated for their symptoms,’ the hospital said in a statement.
One passenger told media, ‘Very intense coughing. Violently sick. Going into the bathroom a lot.’
Many took to Twitter to document the situation unfolding.
