Man on DTW flight with suspected Ebola 'Everybody was panicking a little bit'

Passenger on diverted flight over Ebola concerns shares story

A passenger aboard the flight from Montreal diverted its course away from Detroit Metropolitan Airport Wednesday night.

BRIGHTON, Mich. (FOX 2) - A Detroit-bound international flight diverted to Canada due to Ebola concerns on Wednesday night.

The backstory:

A passenger who was on that flight from Montreal bound for Detroit, spoke to FOX 2 about what unfolded, saying passengers were feeling some panic.

On Wednesday, a flight from Charles de Gaulle diverted its course from DTW to Montreal. On the flight was a passenger from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Due to a widening outbreak of Ebola in parts of Africa, the US restricted travel from Congo, Uganda and South Sudan on May 18.

The flight in question eventually landed at Detroit Metropolitan Airport late last night with Kevin Gary Mitchell on board.

"Everybody’s taking their towels and wrapping it around their head," said Mitchell of Brighton. "People are coming up, the lady came up to me and said ‘Cover your face.’ 

"And so then you’re panicking a little bit more because they’re not explaining anything to us. We can’t leave our seats. Stewardesses aren’t coming around to anybody else. Everything is now hearsay." 

More: Detroit-bound flight from France diverted to Canada due to Ebola concerns

Mitchell shared a Here he is on the plane, nose and mouth covered. 

He says it happened three hours into his Air France/Delta flight, from Paris to Detroit, when the pilot said they were being diverted to Montreal and that the United States won’t let them in.

Mitchell says there was no official word from the crew that it was due to Ebola concerns.

But rumors started spreading that it was. Some passengers panicked, he said.

Once in Montreal, Mitchell says they escorted someone off the plane through the back.

An hour later, they took off for Detroit. Mitchell says when he landed, he learned that Ebola is not an airborne illness.

More: How the Ebola virus is spread - doctor explains travel risk

Dr. Lea Monday with Detroit Medical Center says that’s the most important thing people need to know.

Ebola does not carry through the air, said Dr. Lea Monday, an infectious disease specialist at Detroit Medical Center.

"It is not spread airborne," she said. "It is not highly contagious it is infectious if you come in contact with the secretions of a sick person. So that means things like blood, vomit, stool, sweat, saliva. 

"So obviously, for a mother caring for a sick child or a spouse caring for their loved one in Africa it’s very easily spread. But sitting next to somebody at the plane, somebody walking by you at an airport, it’s actually not easily spread that way."

Kevin Gary Mitchell