More flights from the Middle East arrive with sick passengers

Twelve passengers arriving from Saudi Arabia in Philadelphia, where they believed they had celebrated Hajj, were referred to health care professionals after suffering flu-like symptoms during their flight, officials said.

It was the second consecutive day at an airport in the center of the Atlantic coast that passengers arriving from the Middle East were showing signs of illness.

On Wednesday, a massive Emirates Airbus 380 plane, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport from Dubai, was moved to a secluded location to allow passengers, including rapper Vanilla Ice, to escape the traffic. to be projected.

In the end, 19 passengers and crew members in New York reported feeling sick, but only 10 were hospitalized. The rapper was not one of them.

Diane Gerace, spokeswoman for Philadelphia International Airport, said in a statement that all passengers on both flights of American Airlines Thursday were "held for medical examination … as a precautionary measure ".

Twelve passengers were finally checked and then released on the spot, a spokesman for US Customs and Border Protection said.

Philadelphia flights targeted by medical professionals on Thursday included American Airlines flight 755 from Paris and American Airlines flight 717 from Munich, although passengers are from Saudi Arabia. Arabia and would have been to Mecca, according to a CBP statement.

Gerace said the two flights had about 250 passengers and crew members. According to CBP, all the passengers of the Paris flight were separated, but the passengers of the flight of Munich, arrived at the passage of the travelers of the first plane, did not need to be cordoned off.

The crew members initially reported what they thought was a disease, CBP said.

According to CBP, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were informed of the Philadelphia reports and local first responders helped set up a triage area at the airport. The situation is not unusual, since the flu is a virus all year round, said a representative of the CDC.

Thursday's reports on the disease did not require hospitalization, but the "CBP was very cautious after Wednesday's illness of the flight crew and passengers 203 of Emirates that landed at JFK International Airport ".

Meanwhile, authorities in Texas have warned passengers who traveled to Houston, Dallas and Harlingen, on August 21 and 22, of the four specific Southwest flights to detect measles symptoms. , according to NBC affiliate, KXAS.

Southwest Airlines said it notified the crew members. According to the airline, its planes are subjected to rigorous cleaning.