Smallpox Hoax Forces Airliner Quarantine

Health officials quarantined an airliner Friday when a passenger claimed he had smallpox shortly after the plane landed in Charlotte, N.C.  The plane taxied to its gate, but passengers were not fully cleared to leave the area for more than three hours, CBS News reported (see GSN, Jan. 18, 2005).

The US Airways flight from New Orleans, La., had 112 passengers and four crew members aboard (CBS News/WBBM radio, March 24).

“He basically said, ‘I’ve been exposed, you’ve all been exposed,’” US Airways spokeswoman Michelle Mohr said of the passenger claiming to be infected with smallpox.

Police removed him from the plane shortly after landing, and doctors at Carolinas Medical Center later said he showed no signs of the lethal virus, the Charlotte Observer reported.

One passenger said there were no signs of trouble until the plane neared its gate.

“The first thing we noticed was just a hesitating a little bit” when the plane stopped at the gate, said Brian Hilgers   “As soon as the bell rings, it’s Pavlovian, you stand up.  Then the pilot came on and said there was a security threat.”

“We thought it was going to be terrorists or something, and you could almost feel an ease in the tension when they said that it was smallpox,” he added (Clive Wootson, Charlotte Observer, March 24).

The FBI is investigating the incident, United Press International reported (United Press International, March 24).

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