JFK Flight Quarantined at Airport as 100 Passengers Fall Ill

A flight from Dubai was quarantined on the runway when it landed at John F. Kennedy airport Wednesday morning after up to 100 passengers reported feeling sick on board the flight, CBS News York reports.

Emirates Flight 203 from Dubai was headed to New York when at least 100 of its 500 passengers reported feeling ill.

Port Authority Police and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were waiting at JFK around 9:10 a.m. in a staging area to check passengers, three of whom were transported to a local hospital.

Shortly before 10:30 a.m., Emirates Airlines said in a statement via its official Twitter account that only 10 passengers from Dubai had fallen ill.

“Emirates can confirm that about 10 passengers on #EK203 from Dubai to New York were taken ill. On arrival, as a precaution, they were attended to by local health authorities,” it said. “All others will disembark shortly. The safety & care of our customers is our first priority.”

The flight was directed to a hard stand area away from the terminal as the emergency medical response team investigated the cause of the illness, which Emirates home office said it believes was caused by food poisoning. A government source briefed on the situation told CBS New York that there is no evidence of a security or terror issue.

About seven ambulances were lined up outside the plane, as well as dozens of other emergency response units including police and Homeland Security, reports NBC New York. Around 10 a.m. a handful of crew members were seen being escorted from the plane.

A passenger on board posted an image of more than a dozen emergency response vehicles waiting outside the plane on the runway. Larry Coben said they were advised on board that people were sick and that passengers had been asked by the CDC to fill out a passenger locator information form.

Later, Coben tweeted that CDC personnel was on board the flight, which NBC New York reports has two levels. Passengers deplaned and had their temperatures taken and around 10:45 a.m. were heading for the terminal.

Ten minutes later, Coben wrote that they had not been let off the bus once they arrived at the terminal, as “folks at passport control” were “debating whether we should be allowed off the bus.”