In September 2018, an Emirates Airbus flight carrying 521 passengers departed Dubai on
a 14 hour non-stop flight to New York.
When it reached JFK airport, the flight was quarantined by the Center for Disease Control
and Prevention, when over one hundred passengers reportedly experienced flu-like symptoms.
Headaches, nausea, coughing fits, sore throats, and fatigue ran rampant through the passengers
on the flight.
Every person on board - including the rapper Vanilla Ice - was screened before being allowed
off the plane, as investigators determined the cause of this fast-acting, potentially
deadly pathogen that had made its way to the United States.
But after all this drama, very little transpired.
It was found that only 19 people on board were suffering from common colds and other
flu-like symptoms.
10 were taken to hospital as a precautionary measure, and 9 refused treatment.
This dramatic incident ended not long after it began.
But how could a few people with colds cause so much drama that even the president was
notified?
And why did over a hundred people report experiencing flu-like symptoms, despite not being ill?
Many people view Flight 203 as an example of modern Mass Hysteria.
But what is Mass Hysteria?
It’s often confused with “mob mentality.”
Joining a riot, or taking part in a bizarre fashion fad are not examples of Mass Hysteria.
It is a type of "psychogenic illness," meaning a condition that begins in the mind, rather
than in the body.
According to a 1997 review by Johns Hopkins University, Mass Hysteria is “a constellation
of symptoms suggestive of organic illness, but without an identifiable cause, that occurs
between two or more people who share beliefs related to those symptoms."
While very few of the passengers on flight 203 actually had the flu, Mass Hysteria may
be why so many experienced the symptoms that looked and felt very real.
There’s no better example of this phenomenon from history than the “Dancing Mania”
that overtook the city of Strasbourg in 1518.
It began with just one woman who stepped into the city street and silently began to dance.
For whatever reason, she just couldn’t stop, and after nearly a week, 35 other people had
joined in.
After just one month, 400 people had been taken over by this “dancing plague.”
And a plague it was.
Dozens of people lost their lives by dancing themselves to death.
The extreme physical exertion made people dehydrated, starving, and even have heart
attacks.
For centuries this “dancing plague” stumped scientists.
While at one point it was commonly believed the citizens were poisoned by a fungal mould
called Ergot, this didn’t explain why the odd behaviour was limited to just dancing.
Now the most popular theory is that it was a case of Mass Hysteria.
The illness can be triggered by environmental stresses.
Medieval Europe was a particularly difficult time to be alive in 1518.
With numerous famines, war, rising taxes, and increasing rates of syphilis and homelessness,
it’s easy to see how Strasbourg became ripe for a case of Mass Hysteria.
It’s likewise easy to see how this could occur on a plane.
With over 500 people huddled in close proximity in a stress-inducing situation, tensions would
be heightened.
Passengers would be out of their comfort zone, and more likely to notice signs of danger
- including illness.
If it appeared that a sickness was spreading around the plane, they may become convinced
they were also getting ill, and even experience the symptoms.
One passenger, Erin Sykes said “there were just dozens of people coughing and by mid-flight,
it felt like a flying infirmary."
We are also influenced by people in positions of authority.
Officials in Strasbourg originally thought the best solution to the “dancing mania”
was to let those afflicted ‘gyrate the fever away.’
They hired professional musicians and even built a stage for the dancers.
This was a terrible idea, and only encouraged more people to succumb to the hysteria.
Similarly on flight 203, out of the 10 people taken to hospital with real symptoms, 7 were
part of the airline crew.
As these people would have come into contact with all of the passengers, it’s easy to
understand how this perception that everyone was getting ill spread.
The most effective way of treating Mass Hysteria is to isolate the individuals exhibiting the
behaviour, and reassure them that everything will be ok.
This was eventually what stopped the Dancing Plague of 1518.
The dancers were dragged individually to the shrine of St.Vitus and prayed until their
symptoms subsided.
When flight 203 reached its destination and people received medical attention, they likely
felt reassured, and thus their physical symptoms subsided.
And just to reassure you if you ever find yourself on a flight with sneezing people,
modern planes use a complicated air filtration system that removes a lot of infective bacteria
from the air.
You’re far more likely to get sick on your way to the airport, than on the plane...
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