12 Passengers Get Sick After Flying Into Philadelphia International Airport

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating two flights where about a dozen passengers fell ill arriving at the Philadelphia International Airport on Sept. 6.

Passengers experienced flu-like symptoms after arriving via American Airlines flights from Paris, France and Munich, Germany, ABC6 reported.

Passengers had gotten off their planes and were in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection zone at the airport when they began to complain of feeling sick.

The CDC, the Philadelphia Health Department, and the Philadelphia Fire Department checked them out, the report said.

The healthy passengers were released. The plane wasn’t quarantined, according to the report.

Airport spokesperson Diane Gerace stated: “As a precaution, all passengers on the two flights—totaling about 250 plus crew—were held for a medical review and the CDC was notified. CDC, the Philadelphia Health Department, and Philadelphia Fire Department personnel performed medical evaluations and assessments. The passengers—except for the 12 affected—are in the process of being released,” according to The Independent.

“CDC is aware of two American Airlines flights from Paris and Germany that arrived at PHL airport this afternoon with ill passengers on board. CDC and Philadelphia public health officers worked with EMS and CBP officials to evaluate and test the ill passengers for influenza and other respiratory illnesses. Twelve passengers from the two flights reported sore throat and cough; none were identified with fever. None of the passengers are severely ill, and they will be released and informed of test results in 24 hours,” the CDC said in a statement, CBS Philadelphia reported.

There was no immediate information about what caused them to feel sick, according to the ABC affiliate report.

No one was hospitalized, CBS reported.

A passenger on a grounded Emirates flight shared video from inside the plane. CNN video screenshot - Erin Sykes

Sick Passengers Elsewhere

It comes one day after an Emirates Airlines plane was held at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City when a number of passengers fell ill.

Around 19 passengers on the Emirates flight from Dubai to New York were sick after landing.

The Associated Press reported that those passengers who landed at JFK appeared to have the flu, and the CDC stated that the plane was quarantined so officials could evaluate about 100 of 500 passengers.

“Given the symptoms that we are seeing in the patients and given the history that they present, it looks like this is probably influenza,” Acting New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot told AP. “But again, until we have our final results late tonight we won’t be able to give a final determination on what the underlying cause is of this illness.”

A passenger on the plane, Erin Sykes, posted a video on Twitter of an official telling passengers on the Emirates flight keep out of the plane’s aisles while telling them “no baggage in the aisles.”

“People were coughing the whole time. Now some people have fevers over 100,” Sykes told CNN. “They should never had been allowed to board.”