A medical aircraft transporting two individuals rescued from the MV Hondius cruise ship, which was affected by a virus outbreak, had to divert its route today due to being denied landing permission in Morocco.
The Learjet 45 was supposed to refuel in Marrakech after health personnel in hazmat suits transferred the patients from the ship near Cape Verde. However, Moroccan air traffic control rejected the landing request, leading the plane to land at Gando Air Base in Gran Canaria, a Spanish Air Force facility.
The flight was rescheduled to depart for Holland around 5:40 pm local time. It was uncertain whether the patient onboard was the critically ill British doctor evacuated earlier. Besides the British doctor, a 41-year-old Dutchman and a 65-year-old German were also evacuated to Amsterdam from the cruise liner.
Spain’s Health Minister, Monica Garcia, disclosed that the condition of the unnamed doctor had improved before the emergency airlift. She mentioned that the British doctor, initially in critical condition, had stabilized and would now be transported to Holland per the Dutch government’s request.
The reason behind Morocco’s refusal to allow the Learjet 45 to land remains unclear. Footage online captured the aircraft landing at Gando Air Base.
Meanwhile, Argentine officials investigating the hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship suggested a possible link to a couple’s birdwatching activity at a landfill. The officials speculated that the virus might have been introduced to the ship when a Dutch couple visited a landfill site in Ushuaia on the Tierra del Fuego before boarding the vessel.
Speaking anonymously to the Associated Press, the Argentine officials implied that the couple could have encountered rodents at the landfill, despite no prior hantavirus cases being recorded in Ushuaia or the surrounding Tierra del Fuego province.