Missed flight caused Las Vegas-bound jet to be diverted to LA
A Las Vegas-bound flight from South Korea was diverted to Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon after customs officials flagged three passengers who had recently traveled to China while the jetliner was in the air.
The diversion came as federal rules went into effect this week requiring passengers who have traveled in China in the past 14 days to fly into one of 11 U.S. airports providing enhanced screening for a new coronavirus that has caused a deadly outbreak in China.
These airports include Los Angeles International but not McCarran International.
“U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has the authority to deny landing rights and divert international flights to funneling airports. This is normal procedure,” said Jaime Ruiz, a spokesman for the agency.
“The determination was made midflight because the passengers missed their original flight,” Ruiz explained. “They took the Korean Airlines (flight) as a connecting flight. Their names didn’t appear in the system until the last manifest of passengers on board was transmitted to our database.
“In this case, the protocol was followed and worked as it is supposed to work,” he said.
After the flight landed in Los Angeles, health officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention screened the three passengers. None showed symptoms of the virus, CDC spokesman Benjamin Haynes said.
Once the passengers were cleared, they were allowed back on the plane and the fight continued to Las Vegas, Ruiz said.
The flight, which departed Incheon International Airport in Seoul late Wednesday local time, spent about 1 1/2 hours on the ground in Los Angeles before landing at McCarran about 5:10 p.m.
Contact Dalton LaFerney at dlaferney@reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0288. Follow @daltonlaferney on Twitter. Staff writer Mary Hynes contributed to this report.
