Authorities are holding 272 passengers from Continental flight 98 from Hong Kong to Newark Liberty Airport because several passengers appeared to have flu-like symptoms. The plane arrived around 2PM local time, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has sent a representitive to meet the passengers before they are allowed to enter Customs & Border Control.
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The sick passengers were part of a group of 80 who went on an Asian river cruise.
This follows the quarantine of 112 passengers from a US Airways plane from New Orleans on Friday at Charlotte’s Douglas Airport after a passenger claimed he had smallpox. The man was taken for tests, and does not have smallpox, which was eliminated thirty years ago. The plane was cleared after several hours when it was determined to be false.
