Alaska Airlines said it was not aware that a passenger who boarded Flight 73 in Sitka the morning of July 20 had tested positive for COVID-19 a day earlier
“We would never allow someone to travel that is COVID-positive, knowing they were COVID-positive,” Alaska Airlines spokesman Tim Thompson said July 21. “Our priorities are for the safety of staff and employees.”
State public health Denise Ewing said a visitor from outside Alaska who was in Sitka on vacation tested positive for COVID-19 on July 19 and was provided test results, including isolation instructions. In a July 20 announcement, Ewing said the visitor and three traveling companions boarded Alaska Airlines Flight 73 at 6 a.m. the day after the positive test. The infected passenger was headed for “their home state” by way of Juneau and a transfer to Flight 60 to Seattle with a stop in Ketchikan.
Ewing said state public health officials and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tried to stop the travelers from boarding the flight in Sitka.
Alaska Airlines did not know the traveler was COVID-positive when the visitor boarded the plane in Sitka or Juneau. “They couldn’t have known that until they heard from the CDC and (state) epidemiology. It’s quite an involved process,” Ewing said. “The airline did their part. They took action as soon as they could.”
Thompson said Alaska Airlines was notified by the CDC of the passenger when Flight 60 was in the air between Juneau and Seattle. Thompson said the airline stopped the traveler in Seattle, denying boarding on a connecting flight. “They won’t fly on us because they are COVID-positive,” he said.
Thompson said CDC also notified the passengers sitting near the coronavirus-positive person.
“We take this very, very seriously.”
Ewing said people who had families or friends on the flights should “let them know of the potential exposure.”
Among the passengers on the flight from Juneau to Seattle was Libby Watanabe. “It was a typical flight, it was very full. There were no empty seats,” Watanabe told the public radio station in Juneau.
She said she later saw the Sitka health nurse’s notice on Facebook.
“I think that’s really irresponsible of them [the COVID passengers]. … It’s worrisome when you find out things like this, how other people have unnecessarily put not just myself and my family in harm’s way but others as well,” she told the radio station.
Dr. Louisa Castrodale, an epidemiologist with the Alaska Division of Public Health, told reporters there is a process for preventing infected passengers from flying — it is not voluntary. It’s called the “Do Not Board” list and is run by the CDC, she explained in the public radio interview.
The no-fly list is coordinated at the federal, state and local levels and is not always as fast as someone booking a ticket.
“And sometimes because of timing, it’s difficult to either get somebody on or off that list very quickly,” Castrodale said.
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