The death of a 63-year-old passenger on an inbound Arik Air flight caused an Ebola scare that led to a cleaning crew's refusal to clean the aircraft headed for Lagos yesterday.
The unnamed passenger reportedly died in his seat after vomiting several times, according to airport officials. However, officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who boarded the plane to remove the dead body, ruled out Ebola as the cause of death.
The death scared Arik Air cleaning company workers, who refused to board the plane to perform any cleaning work, causing a significant delay on an outbound flight yesterday.
The flight scheduled to leave JFK International Airport at 1:30 p.m. did not depart until 6:52 p.m. after changing its departure gate at least once.
Saharareporters learned that Arik’s flight attendants and other crew members joined together to clean the outbound plane before departure to Lagos yesterday. The flight was still airborne en route to Lagos at the time of publishing this report.