The U.S. government chartered for the occasion a Boeing 747 freighter from Kalitta Air, a cargo-only airline based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, instead of a regular passenger airplane. The 747 was fitted with passenger seats for this flight, according to a post by Facebook page Airline Secrets Exposed, which says it publishes submissions from airline insiders. //

It’s not clear at this time why the government decided to charter a cargo jet specially outfitted with passenger seats, instead of a regular airliner. We do, however, know the 747 has a peculiarity which makes it ideally suited for evacuating potentially contagious people: Its upper deck, where the cockpit is, can be closed off from the passengers on the main deck.

Indeed, according to the AP, the flight crew stayed on the upper deck for the whole flight, sealed off from passengers, and did not get off the plane in China. Flight-tracking site FlightRadar24 shows that the plane landed in Wuhan at 10:14 p.m. local on January 28 and left at 4:54 a.m. the following day. Since the flight crossed the International Date Line eastbound, the plane arrived in Alaska the day before it left China.