Inbound Pax on AC ill upon arrival YYZ

[Kip Powick]

Over 75 passengers returning from Tel Aviv were placed in quarantine at Pearson airport tonight after a number of travellers fell ill.

“They didn’t tell us anything,” said passenger Matt Coleman of the ordeal. “They totally kept us in the dark.”

The plane, Air Canada flight 085 from Tel Aviv, landed just after nine o'clock this evening carrying 201 passengers.

Air Canada representative Angela Mah said that over the course of the flight, three people travelling with an organized group fell ill with flu-like symptoms.

“It is our standard operating procedure to have health officials meet the aircraft on arrival in cases like this,” said Mah.

According to Coleman however, health officials did not meet the travellers until they reached customs. “They did not separate the sick people from the ones who weren’t sick. We were all just put in a room, given ‘bunny suits’ and told to stay put.”

Coleman, 19, also said there were eight people sick on the plane, not three.

“They started getting feverish and throwing up in the lavatories.”

Some of the passengers on the plane, including those who became sick were flying with Birthright travel groups: tour guides that bring young Jewish Americans and Canadians on guided tours though Israel.

Coleman said the members of his party, which was organised by the travel group Oranim, were not the ones who fell ill. He said the ill travellers were with the group with Israel Amplified.

Coleman said it was nearly two hours until he was cleared by health officials, “they just took my temperature and it was regular so I could go.” He added that all the other passengers were allowed to leave with the exception of the original eight.

Attempts to contact the Greater Toronto Transit Authority were not successful.