Airport and flight security have been pro-active about detaining travelers who joke about bombs, terrorists and so on, now Ebola has been added to that list.
Especially if you are sneezing in a plane, joking about being an Ebola virus carrier would be the last thing you want to do.
A passenger travelling in the US Airways flight 850 from Philadelphia to Punta Cana in Dominican Republic was feeling a little under the weather. The man joked about his Ebola acting up, after sneezing.
The joke, however, cost him any friends he would have made during the journey.
Once the flight landed in Punta Cana, a flight attendant announced that there was a situation and that a passenger may have been in Africa and be infected with the deadly virus. The flight was grounded until a hazmat-suited emergency team could remove and isolate the passenger, who was found to neither have traveled to Africa, nor Ebola-infected.
Patrick Narvaez, one of the passengers, has posted a YouTube video online stating, "Ebola Scare on US Airways Flight 850 from Philadelphia to Punta Cana - October 8th 2014", which received over 1,194,110 hits in less than 24 hours. Narvaez explains that while the flight attendant was certain that the Ebola scare was merely a hoax, the staff did not want to take any risks.
The video begins with the restless passengers talking amongst themselves and staring out the windows to see why they are not being let out of the flight, which has landed. Soon a female flight attendant's voice can be heard and she says, "Here is the situation.. I need everybody to sit down".
She begins by stating that "it's going to look worse than it is," and goes on to add that she has been doing this (working as a flight stewardess) for 36 years and that she thinks "the man who has said this is an idiot".
She further explains that a hazmat crew, who "look like they're in a bubble machine", would come in, to check on the matter. She okays to take videos and photos, but requests them not to interfere with the work of the hazmat crew.
Soon enough, the crew walks into the plane and conducts inspections, at the end of which, a man is seen being led out of the flight. He says, "I ain't from Africa," as he is taken out amidst "boos" from a couple of passengers.
