Plane carrying hantavirus-struck evacuee lands in Amsterdam

A person in a white hazmat suit (Centre R) disembarking a Bombardier Challenger 605 medical aircraft allegedly carrying some of the passengers believed to be infected with hantavirus from the cruise ship MV Hondius. [AFP] 

A plane believed to be carrying a sick passenger from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship arrived in Amsterdam on Thursday, AFP reporters saw, after an emergency evacuation from the vessel off the Cape Verde coast.

The air ambulance landed at Schiphol Airport at 08:54 local time, according to an AFP reporter on the scene.

The ship's operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, has confirmed that a passenger "in stable condition" was to be evacuated to the Netherlands. The other two evacuees arrived in Amsterdam late Wednesday.

Officials in Spain, where the flight made an unexpected stop on Gran Canaria island, confirmed that the patient "had been transferred to Amsterdam on a different medicalised aircraft" than the one scheduled.

It was not immediately clear what would happen to this patient after landing.

Of the two passengers who landed on Wednesday, one was taken to a hospital in Leiden, in the Netherlands, and the other to Germany.