Woman who caused flight quarantine identified as Minnesotan (with video)

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Family members of a woman who caused a two-hour quarantine of a Delta flight in Chicago this afternoon have identified her as Red Wing resident Lise Sievers.

Roger Sievers said his mother was returning from Uganda and had connecting flights in Amsterdam and Detroit before officials quarantined her plane on the runway at Chicago’s Midway Airport.

Sievers said he had talked to his mother at about 6 p.m. today and that passengers were just beginning to be let off the plane. ABC News reports that there were 43 passengers and three crew members on the plane.

View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.

When Lise Sievers boarded her plane in Uganda, she had a small rash, but “didn’t think much of it,” her son said. However, officials believed it could be a communicable disease and set up the quarantine. Lise Sievers told her son that officials coming onto the plane were wearing facemasks.

“The Centers for Disease Control came in, took photos of her, sent them off,” Roger Sievers said. “Then they came back and said that it appears to be just bug bites.”

Sievers said that his mother is planning to go to a hospital in Chicago, just to double check the CDC’s diagnosis. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Sievers said his mother was in good spirits.

“She’s trying to make light of it,” he said.

Lise Sievers has been in Uganda since late January adopting two special needs children. She was returning to Red Wing to attend another son’s high school graduation here. She will go back in May to Africa to bring home the Ugandan children, who will join nine other adopted children at home.

Lise Sievers’ blog about her trip to Uganda can be found at africanadventures.areavoices.com.

Sarah Gorvin works for Rivertown Newspaper Group, a division of Forum Communications Co.

Tags: news, updates, minnesota, transportation, travel