Originally Posted by
Bksmithca
+TSRA
After taking off and without having a way to check if the individual has a fever or just has motion sickness, how would you make the discussion to continue or divert. It's been a number of year since I flew as an FE with the RCAF and at that time we didn't carry a lot of medical equipment. Standard First Aid kit and a portable O2 bottle. I know on the last commercial flight I took they had a sign for an AED but not sure what other equipment they carry, digital thermometer?
BK
We do carry an Aircraft Medical Kit (AMK), which is much more completely supplied than a standard first aid kit. It's use is restricted to physicians/medical professionals, or crew under the direction of Stat-MD to the extent of their training. It does contain thermometers.
Crew made the right choice, when a passenger is visibly sick - possible communicable disease/diversion/problem inflight - and you are about to push back for a 15 hour flight, you should get them checked and approved to travel and they can go the next day once approved. This may be a slight inconvenience to 1 person, but serves the greater good and ultimately their interest/well being too.
Reminds me of the recent Halifax passenger with visibly bad case of shingles (pox is a highly contagious, communicable disease, in some stages), taken off a flight and brought by AC staff to a doctor for confirmation safe to travel, given a hotel, first flight the next day, upgraded to business, and they still sued AC for discrimination because she was a minority, francophone, female, and was embarassed that the crew dealing with her wore protective gear, mask/gloves, assisting her off the plane...
You can't do right, if you allowed them to travel someone would have taken a photo of a visibly infected person and posted it and blamed AC for risking everyone.