240 evacuees from Chinese coronavirus epicenter to land at March Air Reserve Base in California
Update: Around 8 p.m. Pacific time, the city of Ontario and Ontario International Airport said on Twitter that federal officials had diverted the flight to nearby March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County.
Another official, San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors Chairman Curt Hagman, confirmed the chartered jet’s move in a video posted to social media: “We were prepared but the State Department decided to switch the flight to March Air Force Base for logistics that they have.”
The 2,000-acre facility was decommissioned as a full-fledged military base in 1996 but its runway now serves as a runway for several daily Amazon Air cargo flights, as well as one of the company’s fulfillment centers.
Original story: A plane traveling from a region of China where the coronavirus has killed at least 100 people will land this week at a California airport, officials say.
Up to 240 U.S. citizens are leaving Wuhan, China, and are scheduled to land at Ontario International Airport in San Bernardino County on Wednesday, according to CBSLA.
The U.S. is moving to evacuate government employees and other U.S. citizens who have been working in China from areas where coronavirus is breaking out, CBSLA reported.
The airport says it is working closely with officials to prepare for the flight.
“Ontario International is an official repatriation center for the West Coast and has conducted extensive training in managing situations such as this,” the news release said. “In the event that the returning passengers do arrive at ONT, preparations are being made to ensure that proper health, safety and security procedures are followed.”
Passengers will be screened multiple times before, during and after the flight. They will first be screened for symptoms before boarding the plane in China, KTLA reported.
When the plane stops for fuel in Anchorage, Alaska, passengers will be screened again by personnel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CBSLA reported.
“No occupants who present symptoms of illness will be allowed to proceed into the continental United States,” David Wert, a public information officer for San Bernardino County, said in a statement to KTLA.
Passengers who land in California would be screened and monitored by CDC personnel, CBSLA said.
County officials told KTLA that passengers would be ““far removed from the passenger terminals and other public areas,” and they could be housed “in temporary living quarters at the airport for up to two weeks.”
“The airport will proceed under normal operations during this period,” the airport said. “The safety and security of our facilities are of utmost importance to ONT, and we are taking whatever steps are necessary to minimize the risk to our customers, our staff and the community at large.”
This story was originally published January 28, 2020 at 2:35 PM with the headline "240 evacuees from Chinese coronavirus epicenter to land at March Air Reserve Base in California."