Passenger on flight to Ireland reveals moment officials in hazmat suits removed suspected coronavirus victim from plane
A PASSENGER has revealed how officials wearing hazmat suits removed a suspected coronavirus victim from her plane shortly after it touched down in Ireland. Laura Noonan, 36, had landed at Dublin airport at around 9pm last night on an Aeroflot flight from Moscow when the man with “flu-like symptoms” was taken off the jet. Scared […]
A PASSENGER has revealed how officials wearing hazmat suits removed a suspected coronavirus victim from her plane shortly after it touched down in Ireland.
Laura Noonan, 36, had landed at Dublin airport at around 9pm last night on an Aeroflot flight from Moscow when the man with “flu-like symptoms” was taken off the jet.
Scared passengers were then given a leaflet informing them they had shared a plane with someone “with a possible case of novel coronavirus.”
The deadly virus – which started in Wuhan, China – has become a global health emergency killing at least 304 people and infected 14,380 worldwide.
GP Laura, who was visiting Russia to treat a rare blood condition, said she was advised to go home, stay indoors and limit her contact with other people.
‘VIRUS PASSENGER’
The mum-of-one, who was already wearing a face mask because of her weak immune system, said passengers were not warned by staff during the flight of the suspected virus victim.
She said: “We were not told that anything was wrong during the flight.
“We moved about the cabin and used the bathrooms as you usually would.
“When we landed, passengers stood up to get their cabin baggage and get ready to leave the plane but the captain then came on speaker and ordered all passengers to sit down, which they did.”
Laura said the official wearing hazmat suit and gloves took the man, who she describes as “Chinese”, and walked him from the front to the back of the plane.
She added: “The man passed lots of passengers during his retrieval.
“I could see ambulances, airport police and members of the garda siochana [Irish police] on the tarmac.
HAZMAT OFFICIALS
“A while later we were told that there was a possible case of coronavirus being brought to hospital from our flight and we were given a leaflet about what to do.”
The leaflets read: “You have been on a flight from Moscow today with a possible case of novel coronavirus.”
There have been no cases of coronavirus officially confirmed in the Republic of Ireland, according to the National Public Health Emergency Team.
Meanwhile, experts have launched a desperate search for the elusive ‘Patient Zero’ in the hope of finding a vaccine to stop the killer coronavirus from spreading further.
Researchers from all over the world are racing to find the earliest source of the infection as the first death outside China was reported in the Philippines this morning.
It’s thought that by finding Patient Zero their blood could act as a baseline from which to measure the virus’ behaviour, characteristics and mutations.
China’s health minister Ma Xiaowei has warned the coronavirus already seems to be mutating and jumping from human to human much quicker than when the outbreak first started.
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The World Heath Organisation (WHO) declared the killer outbreak in China a global public emergency on Thursday.
Facilities in the city of Wuhan have been pushed to breaking point, with social media footage appearing to show hallways packed with patients waiting to be seen and staff stepping over dead bodies.
Other clips show exhausted medics breaking down in tears after days of working without sleep.
