Sick passengers removed from flight in Boston in Ebola scare

Emergency crews in protective gear removed five passengers with flu-like symptoms from a commercial airliner that arrived at Boston's Logan Airport on Monday, but US health authorities played down the possibility of Ebola.

Emirates flight 237 from Dubai landed at Logan around 2:30 pm EDT (1830 GMT) and emergency medical workers escorted theill passengers off the aircraft, authorities said.

Massachusetts Port Authority spokesman Matthew Brelis said none of the ill passengers had recently been to West Africa, which is struggling with a deadly Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 4,000 people since March, but alarms were signaled after their arrival "out of an abundance of caution."

Brelis was unable to provide further details but a spokeswoman for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and said no Ebola threat had been reported to the agency by airport officials.

"There was not an Ebola scare at Boston's Logan Airport," Shelly Diaz, the CDC spokeswoman, said.

She did not elaborate but the incident appeared to be the latest in a series of recent false alarms at airports linked to concerns about the potential spread of the deadly Ebola virus.