Boston International Airport was at the center of a “poisoning scare” on Sunday after reports that passengers on two separate flights became mysteriously ill.
Unverified online reports claimed that a Delta flight arriving from Paris at 1:53 p.m. had ten sick people on board, while ten minutes later it was reported that a second Avianca flight from El Salvador had seven sick passengers, including a vomiting child .
Users on
There was just one problem with the reports: they were almost completely wrong.
Airport officials did confirm Monday that officials had met people coming off the Delta flight and that the CDC had been contacted “out of an abundance of caution.” But they also said the diseases were much less widespread.
On the Delta flight, two attendants were taken to the hospital after experiencing “dizziness” and later discharged – according to the CDC.
And during the Avianca flight, a vomiting child was seen by medical staff at the airport before being transferred to Oslo, Norway.
No other injuries or illnesses were reported by the CDC, airlines or airport.
Boston International Airport was on center stage on Sunday over an alleged ‘poisoning’ after reports that passengers on two separate flights were sick (stock)
The claims were posted online by the X account “Boston Area Public Safety Alerts” and were viewed more than 1.2 million times.
The account – which has 15,000 followers – is run by Dean Malloy, 51, owner of digital products for a major financial services company.
He says the information on the transmitter is not official, but is picked up by listening to scanners – radio receivers that allow someone to listen to two-way radio calls from emergency services. None of the information about this is confirmed as fact.
That’s what the CDC said Boston sphere in a statement that “two airline crew members experienced dizziness” during the Delta flight.
“They were transported to a local hospital for further evaluation,” the report said. “The hospital found no evidence of a contagious disease posing a public health risk, and both crew members were discharged.”
During the Avianca flight, they added, “The child had no other known symptoms or exposures. The child recovered quickly and was not taken to hospital.”
A spokeswoman for Massport, which runs the airport, said: ‘Massport responded to two flights (Delta and Avianca) arriving around the same time yesterday afternoon with various illnesses.
“We have contacted the CDC out of an abundance of caution.”
A Delta spokesperson also said, “No customers have reported sick.”
One person who commented on the post on X said: ‘Sounds like Covid. Thanks to the airline CEOs, mask mandates on planes were abolished. This is your new normal. Enjoy!’
A second said: ‘Did they eat the fish?’, and a third added: ‘quarantine these people until you know what disease is spreading’.
Boston Logan International Airport was at the center of concerns in January 2020 at the start of the Covid pandemic, after a student infected with the virus traveled through it on his way to one of the area’s universities.