(CNN) – After weeks working in New York City hospitals on the front line of the pandemic of coronavirus, it was finally time for Dr. Ethan Weiss to come home.
But the University of California-San Francisco cardiologist was shocked by what he saw when he boarded a United Airlines flight from New York to San Francisco on Saturday. Most of the seats were full.
A photo Weiss posted on Twitter seemed to show dozens of masked passengers sitting side by side with no space in between.
“This is the last time I will be flying again for a long time,” he wrote in a Twitter thread over the weekend, adding that many passengers on the flight were “scared / shocked.”
Weiss said he was part of a group of 25 doctors and nurses who had been working in New York City hospitals for the past two to four weeks, and that United would take them free.
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CNN has reached out to Weiss for comment, but has yet to receive a response.
“I have to be tested anyway, but this is crazy. 6 hours like this, ”he tweeted to someone who commented on his thread.
A United spokesman declined to comment on how many people were traveling on the Weiss flight, saying “it had a higher than average load factor but still left with empty seats.”
United Airlines recently announced that it was making some intermediate seats unavailable for selection by passengers. But the company said it was also not reducing capacity on flights, so a passenger could sit in an intermediate or adjacent seat if necessary.
“Although we cannot guarantee that all customers are sitting next to an unoccupied seat, due to the low historical demand for travel and the implementation of our various measures of social distancing, that is the possible result,” the airline said in a statement to CNN.
The flight had “25 additional medical professionals on board who flew free” and all passengers and employees were asked to cover their faces, the airline said in a statement.
The spokesperson added that most of the airline’s flights operate at less than half capacity and that passengers can rebook if they feel their safety is in jeopardy.
On Sunday, Transportation Security Administration agents screened 200,815 passengers, 8% of the total a year ago, according to the TSA.
That’s an increase of 128,875 passengers on Sunday, April 26.
Although airlines are seeing a significant decrease in passenger numbers, United and others have also cut their itineraries, which could lead to flights that are more crowded than some passengers might expect.
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