Plane Quarantined at JFK After Numerous Passengers Become Sick with Unknown Illness

A plane arriving in New York from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was quarantined after a number of passengers on board became sick, according to news reports.

The plane, an Emirates airlines Airbus A380, landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport around 9 a.m. local time today (Sept. 5) and was met by the New York Port Authority police and officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to local news outlet CBS New York.

Emirates confirmed in a statement on Twitter that "about 10 passengers" on board the flight had fallen ill. As a precaution, health authorities attended to the ill passengers, the statement said. The cause of the illnesses has not been confirmed.

Eric Phillips, a spokesman for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, said on Twitter that, so far, 10 ill passengers have been taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center and another eight passengers are being treated at the airport. Health officials were checking the rest of the passengers "one by one" for symptoms. A total of 521 passengers were on board the flight. Phillips also noted that some of the passengers had come from Mecca, Saudi Arabia, which is experiencing a flu outbreak.

A passenger on board the flight, Larry Coben, tweeted that before getting off the plane, passengers had their temperatures taken and were asked to fill out a "Passenger Locator Information Form" by the CDC. At around 11 a.m. EDT, he tweeted, "Happy to report that I am through customs and on my way home."

A government source briefed on the situation told CBS New York that there "was no evidence of a security or terror issue." A local office for Emirates told U.S. officials that the airline believes the incident was caused by food poisoning, CBS New York reported.

Original article on Live Science.

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