17:06 10 October 2014
Emergency medical teams dressed in protective suit stormed a plane from the US to the Dominican Republic after a passenger joked about having Ebola, it has been reported.
Passengers were ordered to stay in their seats as medical teams confronted a passenger who had been coughing during the trip.
A few minutes later, the man was seen being escorted from the US Airways aircraft protesting, “I ain’t from Africa. S***.”
Meanwhile, Dominican authorities said that the passenger was indeed making a joke and that he did not have Ebola.
Paola Rainieri, a communications executive at Grupo Punta Cana which owns the airport, said: “We don’t know why he did it, but he thought it would be a cute joke that would not be so serious. Thankfully it was only a scare.”
Meanwhile, Walter Zemialkowski, director of operations at the airport, said that the passenger will be “returned to the United States, where he will be submitted to another rigorous check.”