Ebola scare at Gatwick as woman dies after flight from Sierra Leone
A woman has died after landing at Gatwick Airport following a flight from Ebola-hit Sierra Leone.
The 72-year-old woman is thought to have been vomiting and sweating before she collapsed and was taken to Surrey Hospital in Redhill.
She had been travelling on a Gambia Bird flight with 128 passengers on board from Freetown in Sierra Leone, via The Gambia.
Sierra Leone has declared a state of emergency after 256 people have died in the country from the disease, which has no vaccine or cure.
The disease has killed more than 800 people across western Africa since the outbreak began in February.
Airport workers were terrified the woman may have been suffering with Ebola.
One staff member told the Mirror: "We've all seen how many people have died from Ebola, especially in Sierra Leone, and it's terrifying. The woman was sweating buckets and vomiting.
"Paramedics arrived to try and help her. The next thing everybody was there... emergency crews, airfield operations, even immigration.
"They closed down the jet bridge and put the aircraft into quarantine. They took everyone's details, even the guy who fuels the aircraft."
However, a spokesman for the Department of Health said a test for Ebola on the woman came back negative, and that she died of natural causes.
A spokeswoman for Gatwick airport confirmed that a woman in her 70s became unwell when the flight landed at 8.15am on Saturday morning.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, she said: "Given the origin of the flight, the hospital carried out tests for Ebola and other infectious diseases as a precaution. The tests came back negative.
"We did not allow any crew to board the flight until we had spoken to Public Health England who cleared the plane for its return journey."
According to the Daily Mail, Public Health England said the woman's symptoms had suggested Ebola was unlikely, but that tests were carried out as a precaution.
The paper adds that early symptoms include headaches, fatigue, muscle pain, and a sore throat, while in advanced stages a victim can experience bleeding from the eyes, nose and mouth, diarrhoea, vomiting, skin rashes and internal bleeding.
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