Mystery illness hits flight…….
A report in The Australian says that Jetstar and Melbourne Airport were last night trying to determine the source of a mystery illness that struck down 10 passengers with nausea and diarrhoea on a flight to Hawaii.
Jetstar and its caterer, Gate Gourmet, failed to find any issues with food preparation for the Monday evening flight from Melbourne to Honolulu.
Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said the airline was comfortable that the illness was not a result of anything consumed on the plane.
“Probably to reinforce that point, at least two of the 10 customers that were ill didn’t eat or drink anything on board the flight,” Mr Westaway said.
“You can’t rule anything out but we’re of the very strong view that there’s no direct linkage to either ourselves or our catering supplier at this time.”
The 10 passengers became sick between two and 4 1/2 hours out of Melbourne and were spread throughout the 303-seat aircraft, with three in Jetstar’s Starclass.
Crew moved the sick passengers to the back of the aircraft to isolate them from the remaining 250 travellers and they were checked for fever by US health officials on arrival in Honolulu.
“We were allowed to disembark the passengers after about an hour at Honolulu International,” Mr Westaway said.
“One of the passengers went to hospital.” “She was dehydrated, and has been subsequently discharged.”
“The remaining passengers … were processed through customs, picked up their baggage and commenced their holiday.”
“Our manager in Honolulu will continue to keep tabs on the 10, particularly the lady that went to hospital, but we understand that so far everything is OK, given the circumstances.”
Mr Westaway said the aircraft was checked and disinfected before it left Honolulu as a precaution.
He said Jetstar was still investigating whether something the passengers consumed before boarding the plane had caused the problem: “We’re still following that line of inquiry but at this … time I can’t confirm with you what we think occurred.”
Melbourne Airport spokesman Thomas Perry said the airport was investigating the illness but noted it had not received any reports of illness from other passengers.
Three other flights, all bound for New Zealand, had left the international terminal about the same time as the Jetstar flight. “We haven’t had any reports from them at all,” he said.
Report by The Mole from The Australian
John Alwyn-Jones
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