UPDATED 5:11 p.m. ET
A plane at Newark Liberty International Airport, just 30 minutes outside of New York City, was sealed over fears that a passenger on board was carrying the Ebola virus, according to a report.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating United Airlines Flight 998 from Brussels, after a passenger had begun vomiting on the plane, CBS reported.
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"Upon arrival at Newark Airport from Brussels, medical professionals instructed that customers and crew of United flight 998 remain on board until they could assist an ill customer," United Airlines said in a statement, according to the report. "We are working with authorities, and will accommodate our customers as quickly as we can."
A CDC spokesperson confirmed to Mashable that "quarantine officers did meet the plane and assess the patients," but added that "it's what we do routinely for any ill person on a plane." The spokesperson did not confirm whether passengers were deplaning.
United said in a release that the ill passenger "was taken to a local hospital, and the other passengers deplaned the aircraft."
According to the CDC's website, Ebola is "not spread through the air or by water, or in general, by food." Rather, it's spread through direct contact with an infected person's bodily fluids. So if the sick passenger was infected with the Ebola virus, the other passengers would not have been at risk unless they somehow came in direct contact with the sick person's bodily fluids.
After reports of the grounded flight surfaced, several Twitter users who claimed to be at Newark Airport tweeted out conflicting accounts of the plane's status.
Passengers are being held on United Flight (the one to the right of the red Virgin plane) pic.twitter.com/5pRFKHmjLQ— Don Champion (@DonChampionTV) October 4, 2014
#Ebola concerns #EXCLUSIVE pic #UNITED #EWR health expert in blue protective gear lowr rt w/#PAPD by plane #myfoxny pic.twitter.com/Z6Vu6mqmRN— Lisa Evers (@LisaEvers) October 4, 2014
#Ebola Scare onboard a flight from #Brussels, landing in #Newark. LIVE UPDATE at 3PM. http://t.co/CjBwZfMnGu pic.twitter.com/TJbAXUGhM2— News 12 NJ NewsDesk (@News12NJDesk) October 4, 2014
A sick passenger is being investigated for Ebola at Newark airport http://t.co/MMMreG32TD pic.twitter.com/eptfUuk3rY— New York Post (@nypost) October 4, 2014
A reporter from ABC News said passengers were being allowed off the flight.
Passengers being allowed off United flight 998 upon @CDCgov determined person in question not contagious. @ABC7NY #Ebola— Darla Miles (@DarlaMiles7) October 4, 2014
A report from television channel NY1 said the sick passenger is being transported to a local hospital for evaluation with his or her child, who was also on the flight.
Sick passenger aboard United flight 998 from Brussels being transported to hospital with daughter who was also on flight. Tune in to NY1.— NY1 News (@NY1) October 4, 2014
According to the New York Daily News, the two passengers removed from the plane, a father and daughter, have been cleared of Ebola. They were reportedly traveling from Liberia.
A spokeswoman for the Port Authority confirmed that the rest of the passengers had been cleared to leave the airport. "They are going through customs," a Port Authority spokesperson told Mashable. According to the spokesperson, the sick passenger was a 35-year-old man, who was traveling with his daughter, whose age is unconfirmed.
United Airlines did not immediately respond to requests for comment.