A Michigan woman who was on the May 20 Air France flight diverted to Montreal says she was alarmed and confused when she learned a passenger from the Ebola-stricken Democratic Republic of Congo was on board and crew members began donning medical masks.
But what has Debbie Mistor, 57, still stewing is this: “Who dropped the ball here?”
Mistor, in an interview with the Detroit Free Press, wondered how the traveler from the central African country was allowed to board the Detroit-bound plane two days after the Trump administration announced a temporary travel ban on all non-U.S. passport holders from the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Uganda.
“I’m very concerned about the fact that this passenger was on a plane full of hundreds of people and we have no idea for certain whether that person had been exposed to Ebola, or whether the person was in an area that Ebola was prevalent,” said Mistor, who lives in Superior Township in Washtenaw County.
Ebola is a type of viral hemorrhagic fever with an average fatality rate of 50% for all strains of the virus, according to the World Health Organization. However, the World Health Organization reports that it has varied from 25% to 90% in previous outbreaks.
The Bundibugyo strain of Ebola is what is causing the current outbreak centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As of May 22, it included 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths, according to the WHO. There are no vaccines or treatments for this type of Ebola.
It was declared a public health emergency of international concern earlier this month.
A mysterious diversion
After a nearly weeklong trip to Berlin, Mistor recalled racing through Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris early on the afternoon of May 20, trying to catch a connecting flight she thought would be the final leg of her trip home to Michigan.
“We were completely out of breath, running to catch it,” said Mistor, who with her partner, Ed Ficaro, booked their tickets on Air France Flight 378, through Delta Airlines, its domestic partner.
They managed to board the plane just before the cabin doors closed and buckled into business-class seats toward the front, she said. She estimated there were more than 250 passengers.
Everything seemed normal as they jetted westward over the Atlantic Ocean. But with about four hours left in the flight, the pilot made an announcement in French over the intercom system, she said.
“I don’t speak French, so I couldn’t understand him,” said Mistor. “Then, he made the announcement in English.”
The captain’s accent was heavy and there was static on the intercom, but she said he told the passengers the aircraft was no longer going to Detroit.
“It was being diverted to Montreal,” she said. “Per the instructions of the U.S. government, we were not going to be allowed to land in Detroit.”
There was confusion in the cabin, she said, as passengers tried to understand what he’d said and also struggled to grasp the implications.
“Obviously, you know, people were trying to piece together what part they heard or understood,” she said. “We were all like, ‘What did he say? What’s going on? What’s happening?’ ”
The biggest question of all in Mistor’s mind was: Why?
In void of information, theories swirl on diverted plane
Some concerned passengers began asking flight attendants for more details.
“I heard a couple of flight attendants give the answer of: ‘Well, we don’t have any more information other than we’re going to Montreal,’ ” Mistor said.
A frequent traveler, Mistor wasn’t satisfied with that answer. She posted about the mysterious diversion to a Delta Airlines thread on Reddit.
“I did that because I thought maybe someone else who was on this flight might chime in or someone else might know something,” Mistor said. “Well, all the people who started engaging with this post brought up, ‘Is this hantavirus? Is this Ebola? What’s going on?’ That did not even cross my mind at first.”
Her worries deepened when she noticed the flight attendants had all put on medical masks — some wore surgical masks, others sported N95 respirators.
“It definitely raised the alarm level,” Mistor said. Some passengers asked for masks, but Mistor said flight attendants told them the plane wasn’t stocked to provide personal protective equipment for them.
Those who happened to have masks in their carry-on bags began to rummage through them, and stretched masks across their mouths and noses, she said.
About 20 minutes later, Mistor said the pilot spoke to the passengers a second time using the intercom system.
“He wanted to clarify that this was absolutely not a problem with the plane or the mechanics and there was no issue with the aircraft,” she said. “It was perfectly safe. Instead, he said that this was due to a passenger who could not come to the U.S.”
She was rattled yet again by that revelation.
“I was really disturbed,” she said. “I thought, is there a criminal on board? Is somebody contagious because obviously the hantavirus and Ebola are real and significant issues going on right now.
“It was definitely concerning.”
A passenger sitting nearby asked a flight attendant whether someone onboard was infected with Ebola or was from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is at the center of the current epidemic.
She said she overheard the flight attendant say: “They are not exhibiting any symptoms that we can see or are aware of. It’s just that they are not being allowed in because of the ban, the travel ban.”
About an hour before landing in Montreal, Mistor noticed the plane’s Wi-Fi had been shut off; passengers could no longer communicate with their loved ones on the ground — or post to Reddit or other social media.
It felt deliberate, she said.
“They were absolutely preventing the people on the plane from communicating with anybody not on the plane,” she said.
A worrisome stop in Montreal
When Air France flight 378 finally stopped on the tarmac at Montréal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, it wasn’t at a gate, Mistor said. Rather, rolling steps were wheeled out and positioned by the front and back of the aircraft. Officials boarded at the front, where she could see them talking with the flight crew.
Meanwhile, at the back of the plane, other people boarded the aircraft wearing fully protective gear and removed a passenger.
It was deeply unsettling, she said, that the airline didn’t communicate exactly what was happening, and what the risks were, if any, to other passengers.
“It is just really concerning that this person was allowed on the flight,” Mistor said. “What is the point of checking passports and going through passport control and everything else if they’re just not going to pay attention to where people are going or coming from? Air France let this person on the flight.”
At the same time, Mistor said she also feels empathy for the traveler forced off the plane in Montreal.
“I feel really bad for that passenger who obviously was trying to get to Detroit and didn’t,” she said. Still, she wonders: “Did they knowingly get on a plane that they knew they shouldn’t have been on?”
Within about an hour of landing in Montreal, the plane took off again. It landed at Detroit Metropolitan Airport just after 8 p.m., she said.
Mistor said she and Ficaro still haven’t gotten any communication from Air France or its domestic partner, Delta, about what happened.
“Nobody has reached out through email or phone or anything else,” she said. “They have all our passenger information. You would think at some point, somebody would at least send an email saying, ‘Hey, you are all safe. It’s fine.’ They should try to reassure everybody that this was not something to be concerned about.”
The Free Press sent email messages to Air France and its partner, Delta Airlines, but did not get an immediate response.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection released a statement to the Free Press on the evening of May 20, saying Air France had allowed a passenger from the Democratic Republic of Congo to board the Detroit-bound flight “in error.”
“Due to entry restrictions put in place to reduce the risk of the Ebola virus, the passenger should not have boarded the plane,” the statement said. “CBP took decisive action and prohibited the flight carrying that traveler from landing at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, and instead, diverted to Montreal, Canada.”
At about 4:30 p.m. May 20, American authorities notified the Canadian government that the flight would not be permitted to enter the U.S., said Craig Currie, a spokesman for the Public Health Agency of Canada. The decision was made to divert it to Montreal.
Once the plane landed, “a Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) quarantine officer assessed the traveller and determined they were asymptomatic,” Currie told the Free Press in an email message. “The traveller has departed back to Paris.”
Mistor said she plans to file a formal complaint with Delta/Air France about how things were handled.
“I’m still very worried,” she said.
Detroit Free Press staff writer John Wisely contributed to this story.
Contact Kristen Shamus: kshamus@freepress.com. Subscribe to the Detroit Free Press.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan woman recalls fear, confusion on diverted Air France flight
Reporting by Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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