10 passengers and crew members were taken to hospital in New York, after feeling unwell following their arrival at JFK Airport, on a flight from Dubai.

Some of the passengers were returning from Mecca, which is currently experiencing a flu outbreak, and it seems they brought the bug with them.

This is why I always get nervous when I hear someone coughing on a plane.

NewsAU reports:

As many as 100 people reported feeling ill during Emirates Flight 203, with health workers evaluating them as the plane sat on the tarmac of JFK International Airport.

The flight, with 521 passengers on board, touched down shortly after 9am local time (11pm AEST) on Wednesday and was immediately surrounded by dozens of ambulances and other emergency vehicles as anxious passengers waited to be evaluated by health officials.

The plane was quarantined while the CDC (Centre for Disease Control) made sure that the virus wasn’t going to launch the zombie apocalypse. The virus has since been confirmed to be a bad case of the flu that originated in Mecca, so there’s no need to panic.

One guy who kept his cool in the midst of what could have been a national health crisis was rapper Vanilla Ice.

Nineties pop star Vanilla Ice, who was on the plane, tweeted: “This is crazy. Apparently there is over 100 people sick on the bottom floor, so happy I’m up top, it’s a double-decker plane 380.”

On Twitter, he also described looking out the window to see several ambulances, fire trucks and police vehicles converge on the plane.

Ice was super chilled about the whole thing, even taking the time to make fun of people who tried to correct his grammar.

He even mentioned South Africa in one of the tweets:

TIME reports that:

Vanilla Ice, whose real name is Robert Matthew Van Winkle, was not only unaffected by the flu-like illness, but he was seemingly unaware of the apparent chaos beneath him on the plane.

The rapper was in Dubai for a speaking engagement on Tuesday, after giving a talk in Johannesburg, South Africa on Sunday, according to his website.

On Twitter, he explained that the short trip abroad — with some remarkably long flights — had been exhausting.

So Ice was in SA, hey? Totally missed that one.

[sources:newsau&time]