Largest in-flight super-spread transmission of SARS during the 2003 epidemic
Total fatalities
5
Aircraft
Aircraft type
Boeing 737-36N
Operator
Air China
Registration
B-5035[2]
Flight origin
Hong Kong International Airport
Destination
Beijing Capital International Airport
Passengers
112
Crew
8
Fatalities
5
Survivors
115
Air China Flight 112 was a scheduled international passenger flight on 15 March 2003 that carried a 72-year-old man infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). This man would later become the index passenger for the infection of another 20 passengers and two aircraft crew, resulting in the dissemination of SARS north to inner Mongolia and south to Thailand. The incident demonstrated how a single person could spread disease via air travel and was one of a number of superspreading events in the global spread of SARS in 2003. The speed of air travel and the multidirectional routes taken by affected passengers accelerated the spread of SARS with a consequential response from the World Health Organization (WHO), the aviation industry and the public.[3][4][5]
The incident was atypical, in that passengers sitting at a distance from the index passenger were affected and the flight was only three hours long. Until this event, it was thought that there was only a significant risk of infection in flights of more than eight hours duration and in just the two adjacent seating rows. Other flights at the time with confirmed passengers with SARS did not have the same extent of infection spread.[3]
Some experts have questioned the interpretation of the incident and highlighted that some passengers may have been infected already. The role of cabin air has also come under question and the incident involving Flight 112 has led to some experts calling for further research into patterns of airborne transmission on commercial flights.[6]
^"SARS | SARS-CoV Photos and Images | CoV Disease | CDC". www.cdc.gov. 8 February 2019. Archived from the original on 29 January 2020. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
^毕耀华; 武二秀; 石动花 (2003). "两名空中女乘务员患SARS的应对措施和流行病学分析". 中华航空航天医学杂志 (in Chinese). 14 (2). Chinese Medical Association: 69–71. ISSN 1001-6589.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ abOlsen, Sonja J.; Chang, Hsiao-Ling; Cheung, Terence Yung-Yan; Tang, Antony Fai-Yu; Fisk, Tamara L.; Ooi, Steven Peng-Lim; Kuo, Hung-Wei; Jiang, Donald Dah-Shyong; Chen, Kow-Tong (18 December 2003). "Transmission of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome on Aircraft". New England Journal of Medicine. 349 (25): 2416–2422. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa031349. ISSN 0028-4793. PMID 14681507.
^Cite error: The named reference Abraham2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Infectious diseases on aircraft". European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. 13 June 2017. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
^Johnson, Mark; Oxenden, McKenna (24 November 2017). "Flight Risk". Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Archived from the original on 6 April 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
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