I have been doing my welcome home calls this week and finally managed to contact a customer that had been on MSC Preziosa on the 19th February 2019 14 nights with the Virgin Gatwick flight home, I am not sure if you are all aware, but there were some issues on the flight back!
It seems that 40-50 people on the flight were taken ill on the Virgin flight home and 5 of the cabin crew. It seems in the media they are trying to lay the blame at the cruise lines feet, but on speaking to my customer, I am not entirely sure this is the case.
My customer was in the pre economy seats and said that before take off, the cabin stewardess sprayed inside the overhead lockers and the cabin with what looked like insect spray. I have heard of this happening and only ever seen it once quite a few years ago on board a flight back from Cuba. This is to make sure no horrible insects come back to this country. (perhaps stop the spread of Zika virus!) You would think that would be a good thing, but as the illness seemed to be problems with breathing and extreme Dioreah it makes you wonder if the cure is making people ill!
The captain radioed forward to Gatwick and then when they arrived, the whole flight was quarantined there. Doctors and police boarded the flight wearing masks and tests were taken, 3 people were hospitalised. My customer said it was quite scary, they had no knowledge of anything untoward during the flight, so it was a bit of a shock when the events unfolded.
However, as my customer rightly said had they said before landing that the flight was to be quarantined this could well have caused a panic. After several checks and 5 hours after landing, they were then allowed off the plane and allowed to go home.
On a brighter note apparently, the cruise was amazing !!!
Were you onboard too? Have you ever experienced anything like this, share your comments with me to let me know your thoughts on this …….