Water Fountains Shut Down at Cleveland Airport After 6 Passengers Fall Sick on Frontier Flight

A handful of water fountains were shut down at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE) on Tuesday after six passengers on a Frontier Airlines flight fell ill while on board the plane.

The passengers, heading to Tampa (TPA) on Frontier Flight 1397, were not traveling as a group but all began throwing up by the time the plane landed in Florida, a spokesperson for the Tampa airport told CNN. Health officials reportedly boarded the plane when it landed and removed the sick passengers. The other passengers were left on the plane for about an hour.

"Once our medical team determined the passengers weren’t contagious, everyone was released from the plane and the airport," TPA Vice President of Communications Janet Scherberger told TPG in an email. "No one was transported from the airport to local hospitals."

Authorities at the Cleveland airport think the passengers' illnesses could possibly be linked to airport water fountains. All the water fountains in the Frontier concourse at CLE have been shut down as a precaution while officials investigate the matter, USA Today reports. The fountains will remain closed until tests can be completed.

Requests for comment from Frontier and Cleveland airport were both unreturned by time of publication.

A similar situation occurred in September 2018 when at least a dozen passengers contracted flu-like symptoms on two flights into New York (JFK) and Philadelphia (PHL) and the planes had to be quarantined.