Witnesses onboard recall ‘mess’ and ‘horror’ of U-turned flight due to passenger diarrhoea

Today the story dominating news, TikTok and Twitter is the horrific Delta Air Lines flight which was forced to U-turn and emergency land because a passenger had awful diarrhoea. The poop in question is said to have run “all the way through the plane” and a member of staff speaking to air traffic control labelled the situation a “biohazard”.

The flight, on Friday last week, had been scheduled to travel from Atlanta to Barcelona, but turned back because someone suffered from diarrhoea onboard. Cabin crew tried to clean it up and cover the smell with air freshener, but in the end it was decided their only option was to land the plane.

Now, people who were there have been recounting what happened and it sounds absolutely horrific. Content warning for discussions of *poop*.

‘It dribbled down the aisle’

One woman whose partner was on board tweeted: “It was pretty bad. It was dribbled down the aisle, smelled horrible. The vanilla scented disinfectant used on it only made it smell like vanilla shit. After the plane landed, it was thoroughly cleaned. They didn’t leave until around 2:30am.

“The flight was met by emergency vehicles and EMTs carried the sick passenger off the plane. My partner said the plane was cleaner when they got back on at 2am than when they first got on. No smell either.”

‘It was a mess’

Another passenger tweeted: “Both my wife and I were on the flight. It was a mess. The pilots made the right decision to turn around. The ground crew ripped out the carpet and put new in. Considering the circumstances, the ground crew did a great job, along with the attendants and the pilots.”

‘This is a biohazard issue’

The captain himself spoke to air traffic control at the time, when it was decided the plane needed to U-turn. “This is a biohazard issue,” they said. “We’ve had a passenger who’s had diarrhoea all the way through the airplane, so they want us to come back to Atlanta.”

‘Funniest thing he’s ever experienced’

At least a few passengers managed to see the funny side of it, with one person on Twitter saying their brother was on the flight and had said it was the “funniest thing he’s ever experienced”.

“Lil bro headed abroad rn but his plane had to go back to [Atlanta] an hour into the flight bc someone shit up and down the aisle,” they said. “Haven’t laughed harder than his phone call to me at midnight to explain why he was still in America. He said it was the funniest thing he’s ever experienced.”

‘Thank goodness we were in first class… we nearly missed our cruise’

Two first class passengers have spoken to MailOnline, who due to their privileged seating, managed to avoid most of the chaos but narrowly missed their cruise. Imagine!

“My husband and I were on the flight,” they said. “Thank goodness we were in first class, so we missed the experience. We did see Delta crew attendees running back and forth in protective coverings or with gloves. They told us we would have to get off the flight because they had to do a thorough cleaning and replace the carpet. We are on our way to the Celebrity Reflection. We were worried that we would miss the cruise.

“We set at the airport for hours. All of us so exhausted. Finally, we were allowed back on the plane. Delta was very accommodating, they gave continual updates. We knew that we missed the cruise, we got to the airport and Celebrity was there and picked up all 52 passengers even though we were about three hours late. It was an experience that I hope no one has to go through. I hope the poor woman that had this experience recovers.”

Delta Air Lines has released a statement confirming the passenger suffered a ‘medical issue’

A spokesman for Delta Air Lines said the passenger on the flight had a “medical issue” but didn’t go into any detail about the diarrhoea incident.

They said: “Delta flight 194 from Atlanta to Barcelona returned to Atlanta following an onboard medical issue. Our teams worked as quickly and safely as possible to thoroughly clean the airplane and get our customers to their final destination. We sincerely apologise to our customers for the delay and inconvenience to their travel plans.”

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Featured image via TikTok and Unsplash.