Mr LSK, a 72-year-old from Beijing, looked pale and sick. He asked a flight attendant for water to take some pills. But nothing appeared out of the ordinary on China Airlines flight 112 from Hong Kong to Beijing on March 15, 2003.
No-one on the three-hour flight knew it, as the meal was served and a movie shown, but the Sars virus was onboard and spreading.
Mr LSK had been in Hong Kong since December 26, 2002. On March 4, his elder brother was admitted to ward 8A of the Prince of Wales Hospital suffering from salmonella. He died on March 9.
Mr LSK regularly visited him at the hospital. The index case of the Prince of Wales Hospital outbreak was in ward 8A at the same time; at least 143 of his contacts developed Sars. One of those contacts was Mr LSK; another was Mr LSK's niece, who also visited the ward.
Mr LSK developed fever on March 11 and saw a doctor on March 14, with fever, chills, rigour, cough, and shortness of breath. The doctor advised him to go to hospital, but Mr LSK wanted to return to Beijing and had already booked himself on to a flight the next day, March 15.
On arrival in Beijing he went to a hospital but was not admitted. The next day he was taken to another hospital, where he had to be resuscitated in the emergency room and was admitted. He died there on March 20, having passed the virus to at least 59 other people.
