Hawaiian student Rachel Collier caught a cold while on holiday in New York. She thought nothing of it until she began coughing aboard her return flight shortly before take off. The spell was so violent that she lost her voice. A doctor passenger looked Collier over and certified that the girl would be fine to fly home.
However, the captain disagreed. The plane returned to the terminal, and the crew dropped the ill ingenue and a chaperoning teacher back at the gate. They were forced to book lodging for the night and a flight for the following day. Thankfully, the carrier, Continental Airlines, apologized to the girl and reimbursed her for those expenses.
When I see sick people on airplanes, I immediately think of Patrick Dempsey in that movie Outbreak. I picture him coughing all over the plane passing on that deadly monkey virus to everyone. I wouldn’t have minded if I saw the young girl ejected because I wouldn’t want to end up in a quarantined town with Donald Sutherland threatening me with his Jeeps and helicopters. No, thank you.