Was Vanilla Ice on that quarantined plane? An investigation.

2025-04-28 05:00:07admin

You might think we left the '90s far, far behind us, but on this day in 2018 the world is once again called to turn its attention to Robert Matthew Van Winkle, the rapper best known by his stage name, Vanilla Ice.

Now there's a good chance you're asking yourself, "Why on earth is the 'Ice Ice Baby' artist relevant again?" Did he drop some new music? Did Trump attempt to tweet his favorite flavor of ice cream and screw up!? Great guesses, but no!

Vanilla Ice is currently in the news because this afternoon he claimed to be a passenger on a quarantined plane at New York's JFK Airport. And.... uh... naturally everyone wants to know if that's true.

SEE ALSO: This flight-sharing service is like Uber Pool for private planes

In order to unpack this bizarre and unexpected Vanilla Ice storyline, we invite you all to stop, collaborate, and listen to a breakdown.

Early Wednesday morning, as many as 100 passengers on Emirates Flight 203 — which flew to JFK from Dubai — were reported ill, many suffering from a cough and fevers over 100 degrees.

The plane, which was carrying 500 passengers, reportedly landed at 9:06 a.m. ET, and after a quarantine, 10 passengers and crew members in need of further medical attention were taken to a hospital. But the story didn't end there.

At around 2:00 p.m. ET, semi-forgotten rapper (but still beloved whenever the musical nostalgia hits) Vanilla Ice tweeted that he too was stuck on a quarantined plane at JFK.

Credit: screengrab/tweetdeck

But since the tweets came so long after the Emirates Flight 203 drama was first reported, and four hours after Emirates Airline tweeted a statement, the rapper's claims were a bit confusing.

Credit: screengrab/google

Was Vanilla Ice really on a quarantined plane?

"So I just landed from Dubai and now there is like tons of ambulances and fire trucks and police all over the place,” Vanilla Ice tweeted, alongside a video taken from the window of a plane.

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Tweet may have been deleted

He began a thread, sharing video of coverage of the Emirates Airbus A380 that had landed hours earlier, and tweeting, "This is crazy. Apparently there is over 100 people sick on the bottom floor, so happy I’m up top, it’s a double decker plane 380."

Tweet may have been deleted

Though Vanilla Ice could have definitely been tweeting live updates from the quarantined plane, some red flags — including the delayed timing of his tweets — definitely sprung up.

A big point of confusion came when it was discovered Twitter user @Larry Coben had posted pictures from virtually the same angle as Vanilla Ice, only hours earlier.

Tweet may have been deleted

A theory was that Vanilla Ice was simply tweeting his updates late, but according to Dataminr location tracking, he was tweeting fromJFK at around 2:00 p.m., so perhaps the de-boarding of the plane carried into the afternoon and Ice was detained a bit longer?

While the world awaited answers, people couldn't pass up the opportunity to make some quality Vanilla Ice jokes.

Tweet may have been deleted

And though we still await more concrete information on what happened with the plane passengers from a medical standpoint via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we do know Vanilla Ice is safe.

In an exclusive interview with the Blast, a fresh-off-the-formerly-quarantined-plane Vanilla Ice said he "didn’t think it was that big of a deal" at first, and passengers were told during the flight some people were ill so they were going to the middle of the runway to "hang out."

"They sealed off the two floors and eventually removed first class at a separate entrance," Vanilla Ice said, explaining he was given a quick medical check upon de-planing and had to fill out a health form.

The interview published at around 11:25 a.m. PDT or 2:25 p.m. ET, not long after Vanilla Ice tweeted his plane updates, so perhaps he wasjust chilling on the runway for the afternoon. The tweet timing mystery aside, it looks like Vanilla Ice was on the plane after all, and sadly the setback caused him to miss his connecting flight to Florida.

Will the 2018 drama ever stop? Yo, I don't know. (But my gosh, let's all hope so.)

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