Delta Flight Forced to Make Emergency Return After Passenger’s Diarrhea Creates 'Biohazard'

Declan Gallagher
·2 min read
2

A Delta flight was forced to make an emergency return last Friday after a one-of-a-kind “biohazard” occurred onboard.

Flight 194 was two hours into its journey from Atlanta to Barcelona when a passenger’s “medical issue” necessitated a return to Georgia. At first, air traffic control seemed to think there was a mechanical problem. However, audio later posted to X confirmed the issue was an ill-timed bout of diarrhea.

"Negative, this is a biohazard issue," the pilot can be heard telling control in the short clip. "We've had a passenger who's had diarrhea all the way through the airplane, so they want us to come back to Atlanta."

A photo uploaded to the ATC subreddit showed the progress strips for flight 194. “Divert to ATL—Passenger diarrhea all over [aircraft]—Biohazard,” the strips state. It appears that the flight, which was already delayed for several hours before this incident, made it as far as Richmond, VA before looping home. It landed back in Atlanta around 2:30 a.m. Saturday. Passengers were subsequently evacuated while the aircraft was sanitized.

Those with first (or second) hand experience sounded off in the comments. “My partner was on that flight! It was pretty bad,” wrote user Dee W. “It was dribbled down the aisle, smelled horrible. The vanilla scented disinfectant used on it only made it smell like vanilla s*** [sic].” They reported in another comment that medics met the plane upon arrival, and the sick passenger was taken out on a stretcher.

“Both my wife and I were on the flight,” said John Hurdt. “It was a mess. The pilots made the right decision to turn around.” He reported that the crew ripped up the carpet and installed new ones after the plane landed. Another user alleged that at least one seat had to be replaced, as well.

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In a statement, Delta apologized to the travelers affected and confirmed that they did everything in their power to clean the aircraft as quickly as possible. Flight 194, and its new carpet, finally arrived in Barcelona on Saturday evening.