The massive rescue operation off the coast of Tenerife is finally coming to an end. The Spanish health minister announced on Sunday evening that the final 2 flights to evacuate passengers from the infected cruise ship will depart on Monday afternoon. The luxury vessel currently sits docked near the Spanish island after a deadly hantavirus outbreak swept through the cabins, forcing a total medical lockdown.
Emergency crews worked around the clock over the weekend to get people off the ship safely. The health minister confirmed that rescue teams successfully evacuated exactly 94 passengers so far. The medical teams handled the sickest and most vulnerable passengers first, rushing them onto specialized transport planes to get them back to their home countries for immediate medical care.
The final phase of the evacuation features 2 specific rescue flights. One flight, organized by the Australian government, will carry exactly 6 Australian passengers back home. The second flight, organized by the Netherlands, will take exactly 18 Dutch passengers. Both of these specialized flights will also serve as taxi services for several other stranded tourists.
Officials explained that many smaller countries simply did not have the resources to send their own dedicated repatriation flights to the Spanish island. To solve this problem, the Australian and Dutch planes agreed to take these extra passengers on board and fly them back to Europe or the Asia-Pacific region, where they can easily catch connecting flights home.
The hantavirus outbreak caused massive panic when the first passengers started showing symptoms. Hantavirus usually spreads through contact with infected rodents, making an outbreak on a clean, modern cruise ship incredibly rare and scary. The virus causes severe respiratory problems and often requires patients to use ventilators.
Because the virus can turn deadly very quickly, the Spanish government refused to let the passengers walk through the normal commercial airport in Tenerife. Instead, the military set up a secure perimeter on the tarmac. Medical workers wearing full protective gear escorted the passengers directly from the ship to the waiting transport planes to prevent the virus from spreading to the local island community.
Once these final 24 passengers board their planes on Monday afternoon, the Spanish health ministry will officially close the evacuation phase of the crisis. However, the work does not end there. A specialized hazmat team will board the empty cruise ship on Tuesday to begin a massive, deep-cleaning operation. They will scrub every single cabin, dining hall, and ventilation shaft to ensure the virus is completely dead before the ship sails again.
