An Air France flight to Detroit was redirected to Canada after a passenger from Congo boarded “by mistake” amid the Ebola outbreak in central Africa, officials said Wednesday.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said the agency took “decisive action” in barring the flight from landing at Detroit’s Wayne County Metropolitan Airport.
“Due to entry restrictions put in place to reduce the risk of Ebola virus infection, the passenger should not have boarded the aircraft,” the CBP spokesperson said in a statement.
Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport sent a request for comment to Air France, which confirmed that Flight 378 was diverted “at the request of U.S. authorities” after departing Paris on Wednesday and landing in Montreal shortly after 5 p.m. ET.
“There were no medical emergencies on board and, like all airlines, Air France is required to comply with the entry requirements of the countries it serves,” an Air France spokesperson said in a statement.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday that the United States will restrict the entry of people without U.S. passports who were in Congo, South Sudan or Uganda within the last three weeks. The restriction is in effect for the next 30 days.
In a notice submitted to the Federal Register scheduled for release Thursday, CPB and the Department of Homeland Security announced new arrival restrictions directing all flights to the United States with passengers who have recently traveled to Congo, Uganda or South Sudan to land at Washington-Dulles International Airport in Virginia.
The restrictions begin Thursday and apply to anyone who “left or was otherwise present” in the three countries “within 21 days of the date of entry or attempted entry” into the United States, according to the document.
Dulles has been described as the airport “where the U.S. government focuses its public health resources to implement enhanced public health measures.”
DHS did not immediately respond to request for comment on the document. In its press release, Air France acknowledged the new restrictions.
THE presumed death toll According to the World Health Organization, the number of cases due to the Ebola outbreak stands at more than 139, with more than 600 suspected cases, most of them in Congo.
A vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain of the virus – which caused the outbreak – is very likely. in months from human trials, and there is no guarantee it will work, the WHO said Wednesday.
