Singapore_Air From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2000, 13711 posts, RR: 21 Posted (10 years 1 month 2 weeks 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 2623 times:
SilkAir - a subsdiary of Singapore Airlines Limited - a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines Group - a member of Star Alliance - had to fly one Singaporean on an otherwise empty plane back to Singapore from Chiang Mai, Thailand as the Thai authorities turned him back after being suspicious of him having Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
However, on returning, a series of tests revealed he did not have SARS. "They had a doctor at Chiang Mai examine him and he said it was unlikely that he was having SARS. But the authorities did not allow him entry so it was the responsibility of the airline to bring the passenger back," said a SilkAir spokeswoman. She also added that the man had a high temperature on arrival at Chiang Mai.
Passengers at Chiang Mai were flown to Bangkok on Thai Airways International and then transferred on a Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore.
Reuters describes the scenario as an "expensive false alarm".
Information was gathered from the above hyperlinked webpage. Full information can be viewed by clicking the above hyperlinke webpage. Information was rephrased and not copied and pasted unlike others with the exception of quotes
Singapore_Air From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2000, 13711 posts, RR: 21 Reply 1, posted (10 years 1 month 2 weeks 2 days 10 hours ago) and read 2575 times:
The plane was an Airbus A319 with a capacity of 118 passengers.
Four flight attendants and two pilots flew him back.
Flight MI706 landed at Chiang Mai at 1645 local time and was due to take 23 (note: only 23, load factor of 19.5% (1dp)) back to Singapore at 1735.
The 23 passengers got a free night's stay at a Chiang Mai hotel.
The passenger sat by himself at the back of the A319 and the flight attendants served him meals and snacks wearing gloves and masks.
He was admitted into the Tan Tock Seng Hospital where he was diagnosed free from SARS.
Rupertvander82 From France, joined Dec 2002, 411 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (10 years 1 month 2 weeks 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 2282 times:
Took a trip down to Changi last evening to send a friend off, and I am shocked by how empty Terminal 2 was! It was absolutely a very sad scene, usually at that time, Terminal 2 will be filled with people flying on SQ to Europe, Australia, Japan, North America etc! But it was so quiet!
I don't understand why the man on the silkair plane was given an economy class seat. For goodness sake, be kind and give him a business class seat at least!
ZSSNC From Germany, joined Feb 2003, 428 posts, RR: 10 Reply 5, posted (10 years 1 month 2 weeks 2 days 3 hours ago) and read 2219 times:
While it is, of course, rather dissatisfactory if a perfectly healthy person gets send back to its origin I think that it is better to do that or quarantine a person than to miss a person that is infected with SARS and give the virus the chance to spread further. I think that the effect that SARS could have is underestimated. SARS is not a bacterium which usually causes lung infections but it is rather a virus. And the problem about SARS is that we do not know how it is transmitted. While SARS might not cause many problems in regions with good health care it can easily spread in regions with little or no health care and cause people to die there. In another thread there was a statement that there were only a couple thousand of people infected with SARS and that this is a very little figure compared to other illnesses. While this is true I think one should also have a look about how SARS spread outside China. On 21 February there was 1 SARS case outside China, on 17th March 167 and on the 4th of April already 1133 cases. I think this proves that we should take SARS very seriously.
ZSSNC
Airbus A340-600 - the longest temptation in the sky
Sponsor Message: 
From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2000, 13711 posts, 
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
From Singapore, joined Sep 2000, 3423 posts, 
From France, joined Dec 2002, 411 posts, 
From Germany, joined Feb 2003, 428 posts, 
Printer friendly format 
