CDC: Ebola patient may have had symptoms aboard flight

A second Texas nurse diagnosed with Ebola who flew on a commercial flight with 132 others might have shown symptoms of the disease while aboard the flight.

{mosads}Frontier CEO Dave Siegel said in a message to employees Wednesday evening that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified the company that the passenger might have shown symptoms “earlier than initially suspected; including the possibility of possessing symptoms while onboard the flight.”

Federal officials had said Amber Vinson, the 29-year-old who contracted the disease while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, flew with a low-grade fever from Cleveland to Dallas on Monday, hours before displaying signs of the virus.

Officials announced early Tuesday she had tested positive for the virus, which is not contagious until one displays symptoms. Vinson arrived at Atlanta’s Emory Hospital for treatment Wednesday evening.

Siegel said the airplane, which apparently made five additional trips after the one with Vinson, will remain out of service and be cleaned a fourth time. He also noted that “out of an abundance of caution” the company had put six crew members on paid leave for 21 days, the maximum incubation period for the virus.