Frontier Airlines scrubs plane that carried Ebola patient

Ebola Outbreak

One of the Ebola-infected nurses from Texas traveled by plane on Frontier Airlines just before her diagnosis. That aircraft is being cleaned again, in an abundance of caution.
CCTV America’s Hendrik Sybrandy reports.

In a hangar at Denver International Airport, a Frontier Airlines plane remains out of service while it’s scrubbed clean from front to back. It was the same aircraft Amber Vinson flew to Dallas on before she was diagnosed with the Ebola virus.

Airline analyst Mike Boyd says Frontier is doing the right thing by removing seat covers and carpet near where Vinson sat and replacing the plane’s environmental filters.

“It’s something you need to do to reassure the public, which means hose the thing down, disinfect it, whatever it is, two or three times,” Boyd said.

The measures went beyond Centers for Disease Control recommendations, said Frontier Airlines chief executive David Siegel.

The head of infectious diseases at Denver Health Medical Center said those sitting near Vinson on the plane stand very little chance of getting Ebola. While the woman may have had some symptoms, the risk of her transmitting the virus was still very low.

Out of what it terms an abundance of caution, Frontier Airlines has also placed the two pilots and four flight attendants who worked Vinson’s flight on paid leave for 21 days. That’s the incubation period for the Ebola virus.