The Guyana native, 30, says that his journey began in Saudi Arabia, and when he boarded the aircraft for his connecting flight from Dubai to New York, he sensed something was off.
Quite a few passengers were showing symptoms of sickness. Coughing, he said. Even the guy next to me, in the economy, lower (level), he was coughing and I knew something was wrong with him.
He said the flight departed as scheduled, however. It wasn't until about half an hour before they started their descent to JFK that the pilot announced there were a few ill people on board, Alli recals.
It wasn't alarming on the flight until half an hour before we started to descend, because we didn't know what was going on, he says. Before that, it was a normal flight.
Passengers were told a medical team would come to the aircraft and no one could leave. That's when things became a little chaotic, Alli said.
The crew had a rough time to control people because usually when the aircraft comes to a stop, everybody gets up to get their overhead bags, he said.
After landing, Alli said the flight crew was dismissed, leaving passengers unattended for about a half hour until medical teams boarded to perform exams, taking the sick people off board first.
I saw a bunch of police cars and ambulances start to surround us. We had no idea what was going on until we saw from the televisions in the plane that we were on CNN, he said. And that's when we knew how serious this was.
Forms were then passed out to gather passengers' medical information before they could exit the plane. The forms came from the Centers for Disease Control and were titled - Passenger Locator Information Page.
Alli says passengers were on the plane for about 3 and a half hours before anyone was allowed out.
I was worried about getting sick. I became worried when they started to share that form to everyone and they're like, You're not getting off the plane until you fill that out and until you're being tested, he said.
Alli's theory? The sickness may have been brought on board by flu infested passengers coming from Saudi Arabia.
Not only has there been increased traffic in the area due to the Hajj, an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that ended in late August, but there have also been reports of flu outbreaks.
Alli, who was originally traveling from Saudi Arabia before getting on the flight in Dubai, said he saw other passengers were doing the same, including the coughing man who was next to him.
There were Somalis on the flight, he said. They all came from Saudi Arabia I think too, they were at the Hajj.
He added, I'm guessing the others were probably from the same group. So it was them who probably came with a flu or whatever it was and it spread.
Although food was served during the flight, Alli does not believe that's what caused the illness.
I didn't see anybody vomit, but you don't know if they went to the washroom, he said.
With hundreds of passengers on Emirates Flight 203 from Dubai to New York off the plane and evaluated, health officials will try to pinpoint the cause of the illness that sent 10 passengers to the hospital and left dozens of other passengers reportedly feeling sick.
The investigation of what went wrong will involve the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state, local and airport officials.
Officials will zero in on passengers on the Airbus A380 superjumbo jet who got sick as well as those who didn't to try to determine the source of the illness, according to Dr. Robert Amler, dean of New York Medical College’s School of Health Sciences and Practice and a former CDC chief medical officer and New York Regional Health Administrator.
This is really medical detective work, he said.
Among the questions that will be asked, Amler said:
- Were the passengers who went to the hospital seated in a particular section of the plane or spread throughout the plane?
- What did the affected passengers eat on the plane?
- At what point in the long flight did they get sick? And did they all get sick at once or was it gradual?
In a disease investigation of any kind, you begin with trying to say what is common on the sick and still was rare among the well?
The early signs point to flu symptoms, according to a spokesman for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The CDC reported that many passengers complained of cough and fever.
Investigators will pay special attention, of course, to test results from passengers who ended up in the hospital. The airline identified three passengers and seven crew members sick enough to be sent to the hospital.
The mayor's office said it identified 19 ill passengers, with nine refusing medical attention.
The results of those tests can also be very, very helpful, Amler said.
Is this some kind of infection? Is this some kind of toxic exposure to some chemical in the plane? Could this be some kind of mold exposure, or some other kind of food or water borne exposure?
The good news, Amler said, is that officials are trained on how to investigate these situations. There are regular drills.
This kind of scenario is a well rehearsed one, he said. Every member of the team is going to know what their expectations are.
Amler said the investigation is not likely to drag on.
Typically after a few days they should be getting their arms around at least the most likely scenario, he said.
After Flight 203 landed, the plane was taken to a location away from the terminal at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to a statement from the CDC.
Medical personnel from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention boarded the aircraft to evaluate the situation and provided immediate assistance before passengers deplaned and were processed by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
By early Wednesday afternoon, Emirates had its A380 back and announced a three hour delay on the return flight to Dubai.
In more severe cases of contamination, an airliner or cruise ship might be held longer in quarantine and subject to additional cleaning and inspection.
The airline also did not reply to scattered questions about cleaning posted on Twitter after the airline said it had the plane back and would only delay, not cancel, the scheduled return flight from New York to Dubai later Wednesday.
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