Air travel can be a crappy experience at the best of times. When you merge the modern Western diet with hundreds of people confined within a plastic tube, you create something akin to a Dutch oven with wings soaring through the sky. However, one bad burrito-loving passenger recently let off more than a little gas. Like a scene from a Judd Apatow film, the poor passenger fired off multiple rounds of diarrhoea from first class to the coach, forcing the plane to turn back.
While it’s almost too absurd to seem real, let me attempt to illustrate the wild scenes on this Delta Airlines flight from Atlanta to Barcelona.
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About two hours into its eight-and-a-half-hour journey, a distressing odour permeated the cabin. One of the passengers was clearly unwell and desperately needed to reach the restroom. Unfortunately, they couldn’t make it in time, resulting in the nightmarish incident where the aisle became soiled. A Reddit user who claimed to have been on the flight, posted that the passenger initially attempted to get up just 15 minutes after takeoff, but the flight attendants turned them back.
“Once we were on the ground we heard it went about 20 rows,” the user commented. “Apparently stayed in the bathroom (or maybe just the very back) until 10 minutes before we landed. Paramedics took them off the plane.”
A Live Air Traffic Control website captured the pilot relaying a message to ground control explaining the situation. “This is a biohazard issue,” the pilot 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.”
Other passengers shared their experiences under the viral post on Twitter, describing the horrific scenes that unfolded. “My partner was on that flight! It was pretty bad. It was dribbled down the aisle, smelled horrible,” they said. “The vanilla scented disinfectant used on it only made it smell like vanilla s**t.”
Another person on the flight reportedly said, “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.” They also praised the staff’s handling of the situation, saying, “Considering the circumstances, the ground crew did a great job, along the attendants and the pilots.”
According to The New York Post, cleaning crews were waiting on the tarmac to disinfect the plane when it landed in Atlanta and was flight records indicate it was used for another flight. Delta officials confirmed there was a “medical issue” on the plane, and it had to be redirected to Atlanta to be cleaned.
“Our teams worked as quickly and safely as possible to thoroughly clean the airplane and get our customers to their final destination,” a Delta spokesperson said. “We sincerely apologise to our customers for the delay and inconvenience to their travel plans.”
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