At the time of the hijacking, the airline staff was told that the passenger suffered a cardiac arrest, an airline spokeswoman told CNN.
Paramedics transported him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the statement.
The passenger’s wife was heard telling the EMT that her husband had symptoms related to Covid, including loss of taste and smell, according to the spokesman.
However, Covid-19 has never been confirmed by medical professionals at the time, the spokesman said.
When he entered the flight, the passenger admitted on the airline’s Ready-to-Fly checklist that he had not been diagnosed with Covid-19 and had no symptoms related to Covid, the spokesman said.
After receiving more information about the health of this passenger, “it seems that he misrecognized this requirement,” the spokesman said.
As medical professionals initially decided the emergency as a cardiac arrest, the flight continued to Los Angeles with the same plane, and passengers were offered the option to take off and take a later flight, according to the airline’s statement. “A change of aircraft was not justified,” the airline said.
All passengers chose to continue to Los Angeles.
The family confirmed that the man had suffered from pre-existing conditions, including high blood pressure and upper respiratory problems, and was feeling unwell until the day of the trip.
United shares the information requested with the CDC “so that it can work with local health officials to make contact with any client,” according to the agency, which could be at risk of possible exposure or infection, the airline said in a statement.
The company was in touch with the man’s family and “sent them the most sincere condolences for their loss,” according to the statement.
Airlines requesting more contact information
On Wednesday, United Airlines announced it would ask passengers for additional contact information if anyone on their flight gets off with a coronavirus.
They can then share this information with the CDC.
Earlier this month, Delta Air Lines also announced that it would request contact tracking information for passengers coming to the United States.
To date, no major outbreaks of Covid-19 have been tracked on a commercial flight in the US, but so far there have been no large-scale passenger tracking efforts.
Pete Muntean and Greg Wallace from CNN also contributed to this story.