Woman flying from Chicago to Iceland tests positive mid-air, is quarantined for three hours in plane’s washroom

Gulf Today Report

Abnormal behaviour by passengers on flights may not be uncommon, but in virus-laden times, it is taking on unusual proportions.

One woman was arrested after a video appeared to show her physically assaulting an elderly man on a Delta flight. Patricia Cornwall stood over the 80-year-old passenger, before slapping and spitting at him during a dispute over masks. "I’m eating," the man tells her, as the argument becomes more heated.

In another incident, a three-year-old child with autism was allegedly kicked off a flight and subsequently banned by the airline after he refused to wear a mask.

But nothing seems to beat the gravity of this incident, and there was nothing impolite about it. On the other hand, it shows the extent to which nervousness can grip passengers over the coronavirus issue.

One woman flying from Chicago to Iceland was quarantined in the toilet of a plane for three hours after testing positive for COVID-19 midway through the flight, according to NDTV.

Marisa Fotieo, a teacher from Michigan, said her throat began to hurt halfway through the trip on Dec.19 so she went to the bathroom to perform a rapid Covid test. It confirmed she was infected, the report said, quoting local news channel WABC-TV.

Before the flight, Fotieo told news network CNN she took two PCR tests and about five rapid tests, all of which came back negative. But about an hour and a half into the flight, Fotieo started to feel a sore throat.

"The wheels started turning in my brain and I thought, 'OK, I'm going to just go take a test.' It was going to make me feel better," Fotieo said.

"Immediately, it came back positive." Fotieo is fully vaccinated and has received the booster. She tests consistently since she works with an unvaccinated population. When she got her results in the aeroplane bathroom, over the Atlantic Ocean, she said she started to panic.

"The first flight attendant I ran into was Rocky. I was hysterical, I was crying," Fotieo said.

"I was nervous for my family who I just had dinner with. I was nervous for the other people on the plane. I was nervous for myself." The flight attendant Fotieo ran into helped calm her down, the report added.

"Of course, it's a stress factor when something like this comes up, but that's part of our job," the flight attendant told CNN.

The flight attendant said she did what she could to try to rearrange seats so Fotieo could be seated in a spot alone, but the flight was full.

"When she came back and told me she couldn't find enough seating, I opted to stay in the bathroom because I did not want to be around others on the flight," Fotieo said.