On Sunday evening, airport authorities at Germany’s Düsseldorf Airport (DUS) prepared for a mass casualty event as a Eurowings Airbus A321-200 operating a flight from Rhodes (RHO) in Greece reported an illness outbreak onboard. Current suspicions suggest that it was an outbreak of norovirus, although this remains unconfirmed as Eurowings investigates the matter and those affected receive treatment.

In any case, the scale of the outbreak ultimately proved to be lower than feared, with just a few of the plane’s more than 200 passengers having to be taken to hospital. However, given the contagious nature of norovirus, the possibility of such an outbreak makes the scale of the response understandable. Despite its dramatic arrival in Düsseldorf, the plane was cleared to re-enter service the next day.

Authorities Were Prepared For A Mass Casualty Event

Credit: Simple Flying

Eurowings flight EW9631 is a daily scheduled service that the German leisure carrier and Lufthansa Group subsidiary primarily operates in order to bring Düsseldorf-based holidaymakers back from Rhodes. According to Flightradar24, it is an evening service, with its departure penciled in for 7:20 PM on most days. Its arrival on Sunday, October 18, was set for 10:00 PM, with an A321 operating the flight.

Sunday’s iteration took off at 7:51 PM and landed at 10:03 PM, but the three-hour flight was not without drama. According to coverage of the matter by aero.de, Dusseldorf Airport triggered its mass casualty response alarm after reports emerged that passengers on the flight were experiencing severe discomfort. This resulted in multiple ambulances and fire engines being deployed, with Eurowings saying that:

“The cause of the complaints is currently still unclear and is being investigated.”

The Flight Was Given Priority As It Came In To Land

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A closer look at flight tracking data shows that Sunday’s iteration of Eurowings flight EW9631 was faster than normal, with the service typically spending closer to three hours and 30 minutes in the air. However, with the service’s crew having requested to be met by medical staff on arrival in Düsseldorf, the flight was given priority on its way in, resulting in its fastest airborne journey time in more than a week.

The situation ultimately proved to be less of a mass casualty event than had initially been feared, with The Aviation Herald reporting that just three of the flight’s passengers were taken to hospital. A grand total of 219 people were reported to have been on the flight: 212 guests and seven crew members. According to EuroNews, the cabin crew donned masks during the flight as fears of onboard contagion spread.

The exact nature of the outbreak remains unconfirmed, but multiple reports highlight the fact that current suspicions are pointing towards norovirus. Elsewhere, theories of a gastrointestinal infection are also being considered. In any case, the situation was taken very seriously, with medical staff donning head-to-toe PPE and coming on board and questioning passengers about their symptoms after their arrival.

The Aircraft Is Back In Service, Suggesting No Wider Concerns

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Due to this questioning, as well as other delays for which passengers were reportedly not told the reasoning, those on board the jet, a 14-year-old Airbus A321-200 that bears the registration D-AIDT, could not disembark until 11:30 PM, more than an hour after landing. This delay and lack of clarity are said to have led to further concerns and uncertainty among passengers who just wanted to get home.

Either way, despite the potentially serious nature of the illness outbreak and the need for multiple passengers to be taken to hospital for further treatment and examination, it seems that the situation did not pose a wider concern for future occupants of the aircraft. It was back in the air the next day, operating a morning rotation to Mallorca (PMI) and back, before flying to Heraklion (HER) in the afternoon.