Breaking

Collapsing passengers, CDC missteps and
Oct 18, 2020 2 mins, 53 secs

But as they were crossing the Atlantic, word spread that three passengers who left the ship during port calls in the Caribbean tested positive for COVID.

By the time the Costa Luminosa was halfway across the Atlantic, passengers we spoke to say it seemed like everyone was coughing.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Those early days in March, you know, COVID was starting.

Sharyn Alfonsi: At what point did you start feeling sick.

Kelly Edge had been traveling with her husband, Woody.

Kelly Edge: We are captive.

Kelly Edge: You can't come in with a helicopter.

Kelly Edge: There was a-- conversations from people from the-- the states that were contacting all government agencies.

Kelly Edge: This is where, in my opinion, it became criminal.

Phone video from Jenny Catron on the plane: "So…as you can hear everybody's coughing...".

Phone video from Jenny Catron on the plane: "Here we go.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Did you expect that when that plane landed in Atlanta, that you would be taken to quarantine.

Kelly Edge: 100%?

Sharyn Alfonsi: What was the scene on the plane like.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Did it feel like that.

Kelly and Woody Edge were in the middle of the plane.

Kelly Edge: And then it-- and then it happened.

Kelly Edge noticed Jenny was on her own and got up to help too.

Kelly Edge: And then, on the other side of me to the right, and behind me about two rows, this man started going into some kind of respiratory distress.

Kelly Edge: They're going, like-- they're going, like, fast now?

Kelly Edge: In the like bulkheads.

And if we had landed in Bermuda they could have still been sitting on the plane for another six hours where they debate whether or not they're gonna let people into the hospitals there.

But when the plane carrying the sick and exhausted passengers landed at 6:43 in the morning, the doors stayed closed.

Kelly Edge: And then we finally hear from the pilot that, "Well, apparently nobody knew we were coming.

We were told the CDC knew the plane was coming, but didn't make plans to quarantine passengers.

It turns out the French tested four Americans for COVID, and three were positive and on the plane.

Jenny Catron got sick of waiting.

Sharyn Alfonsi: You called 911 from the plane?

Jenny Catron: I have nine medical emergencies that I had to handle on this plane from France over to here ….

Jenny Catron: I have people passing out….

Sharyn Alfonsi: Who are the first people to board the plane.

They were dressed in plastic-- They're like, "Okay, well, we need these three people that had tested positive in Marseilles.

The three positive passengers were taken to a hotel.

And some passengers told us they saw people with symptoms get through.

Kelly Edge: There were people, get this, their temperature was too high, so the CDC had them sit in chairs and wait and see if it got lower.

Jenny Catron: So I'm trying really hard not to, like, second-guess.

Kelly Edge: Like, half of it was the walking wounded and I watched them all leave.

Sharyn Alfonsi: This plane comes in, people are sick, they're fainting, they're coughing and then they're let into the main terminal of one of the busiest airports in America.

Three people on the plane were put on ventilators days later.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Should any of those passengers been allowed to get on commercial flights at that point

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