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Airports

Cleveland airport's water 'met or exceeded standards' in tests conducted following passenger illnesses, city officials say

By Michael Bartiromo Fox News
Published
An image shared by a passenger on the Frontier flight that left Cleveland for Tampa shows emergency workers entering the plane to remove sick passengers on New Year's Day.

An image shared by a passenger on the Frontier flight that left Cleveland for Tampa shows emergency workers entering the plane to remove sick passengers on New Year's Day. (Dawn Cyhan)

The City of Cleveland has confirmed that water at the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport is safe to drink following concerns that water from a drinking fountain in Concourse A may have sickened six passengers on New Year's Day.

“As part of an ongoing investigation, Cleveland Department of Public Health, Cleveland Water and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE) staff conducted a series of water quality tests outside and inside CLE on January 2, 2019. These tests indicate the water Cleveland Water delivers to the airport and the water distributed from the water fountains sampled inside the airport is safe to drink," officials wrote in a news release.

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The release cited a report detailing the findings.

Concerns over the airport's water were initially raised on Jan. 1, after six travelers aboard Frontier flight 1397 from Cleveland to Tampa became sick. At the time, Frontier Airlines suggested that the passengers may have all used the same drinking fountain.

A fellow passenger on that flight who spoke to Fox 8 claimed the ill passengers were complaining of nausea, and at least one vomited. The sick travelers were removed from the aircraft and treated by emergency workers upon landing in Tampa; the rest were held on the plane, as seen in footage shared by WFLA.

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After the incident, city officials conducted water tests in and around the airport, and all drinking fountains on Concourse A were immediately closed off to travelers at Cleveland Hopkins.

Following those tests, the city has now confirmed that "the airport’s drinking fountains and water supply met or exceeded the standards set for drinking water and did not contain bacteria or harmful metal levels."

Officials added that the analysis was conducted by an independent lab.

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The city's departments of health and water are still working with the airport to determine the cause of the illness, "including passenger activities before arriving at the airport,” per the release.