11 November 2009 / TODAY’S ZAMAN , İSTANBUL
Six would-be pilgrims were prevented from traveling to Saudi Arabia for the Muslim hajj pilgrimage after departing from İstanbul Atatürk Airport over fears that they carried the H1N1 virus on Monday night.
A married couple and four other women had set out with the intention of traveling to Saudi Arabia to perform the hajj pilgrimage required once in a lifetime of all Muslims who have the means. According to reports, they were part of a hajj group that had traveled from Munich to İstanbul the day before. They boarded flight TK 5006, an İstanbul-Medina flight that departed the airport at 6:40 p.m. When the plane was only half-an-hour away from its destination, it was relayed to the cockpit of the Turkish Airlines (THY) flight that the results of a test sample taken earlier from the male passenger had come back positive for swine flu.The cabin crew separated the couple and four other women from the other passengers, and the captain decided to return to İstanbul. The six people were taken to the Okmeydanı Research and Training Hospital by ambulance upon arrival at İstanbul Atatürk Airport at around 10 p.m. A thermal camera was set up near the air stairs the other passengers took to exit the aircraft, and they were interviewed and examined by health care providers. After a delay of nearly two hours they were transferred to another plane to continue their journey to Medina.
