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It's the last place you want to be stuck when you're suffering a bad case of diarrhoea.
An American airliner en route to Spain from the US had to return to the airport after a passenger suffered an uncontrollable case of the runs.
It was so bad that pilot contacted air traffic control to permission to return to Atlanta, Georgia, last Friday night.
In a recording of the follow-up conversation between the plane and air traffic control, the co-pilot is heard explaining the situation.
“It's just a biohazard issue, we had a passenger who had diarrhoea all the way through the airplane so they want us to come back to Atlanta,” the pilot said.
The recording was shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, by @thenewarea51, an account that often shares aircraft-related content.
Another X member named John Hurdt said he and his wife were passengers on the flight, and “it was a mess”.
"The pilots made the right decision to turn around. The ground crew ripped out the carpet and put new ones in."
Another X user claimed to know someone who was one of the 300 passengers aboard the plane.
“My partner was on that flight! 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 s***."
A Delta Airlines Airbus A350 turned around back to Atlanta Friday night because of diarrhea throughout the airplane from a passenger and it’s a biohazard. ????
— Thenewarea51 (@thenewarea51) September 3, 2023
The FAA flight strip for DL194 was posted to Reddit (??xStang05x) Also a passenger posted here asking why her son’s… pic.twitter.com/VWbkB47wF1
An emergency cleaning crew was waiting to go on board and start cleaning when the plane landed.
There was also an ambulance waiting to rush the ill passenger to hospital.
Delta Airlines confirmed that the flight had to turn back because of a "medical issue", but didn’t offer any other details. The passenger’s identity hasn’t been revealed nor has there been an update on their condition.
The Airbus arrived back in Atlanta at 10.40pm and it was cleaned for four hours before passengers were allowed to resume their flight to Barcelona.
“Our teams worked as quickly and safely as possible to thoroughly clean the airplane and get our customers to their final destination," a spokesperson for the airline says.
“We sincerely apologise to our customers for the delay and inconvenience to their travel plans.”
SOURCES: INSIDER.COM, DAILYMAIL.CO.UK, NYPOST.COM
