A United Airlines plane was forced to divert mid-flight earlier this week during a trip from Orlando to Los Angeles when a male passenger on board became seriously ill.

The flight, United Flight 591, had been headed to El Lay when it was forced to land early in New Orleans on Monday, according to news reports from ABC and other outlets. The passenger was immediately transported to a local hospital in the Crescent City, where he was pronounced dead.

Related: Maria Menounos Reveals Both Her Parents Have COVID

According to airline officials, though, it wasn’t just that the person died; according to reports, his wife apparently told an emergency medical technician that her husband “had COVID-related symptoms” in the days ahead of his death.

What?! Why was he and his family even allowed to board the flight? Why did they even try to board the flight if that was the case — and if he were so severe in his symptoms that he died once on board?? So many questions…

Cameron Roberts, a passenger on the flight, described the chaotic scene during the flight as passengers rushed to help the man in distress:

“They had him on the ground in the center of the aisle. They were still giving him CPR while we were touching down. It’s sad to see that, you know, they lost a family member, but at the same time, it was irresponsible on their part to have came on the plane.”

EXACTLY!

Roberts said he is currently quarantining out of an abundance of caution, and he has taken a COVID test. Imagine those other passengers who had to give the man mouth-to-mouth, thinking it was cardiac arrest or something similar…

Related: Santa And Mrs. Claus Test Positive For COVID After Exposing 50 Kids!

Other reported passengers tweeted about their experience on the flight, drawing quite a bit of attention to the COVID question, as you can see (below):

Wow!!!

That’s hard to read… again, very very sad for the family of the deceased man, but also VERY irresponsible to have done something like that with apparent COVID symptoms. Come on…

For what it’s worth, United has been in contact with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and is “sharing requested information with the agency so they can work with local health officials to conduct outreach to any customer the CDC believes may be at risk for possible exposure or infection,” according to a spokesperson for the airline.

We can only hope…

Reactions, Perezcious readers? What a story… tragic and irresponsible. Ugh.

[Image via WENN]

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