By Christopher Buhl
Delta Airlines flight DL194 from Atlanta to Barcelona last Friday took off as scheduled at 8:47 p.m. (local time). But only a short time later, a passenger became terribly ill.
And ultimately forced the pilots to turn back because of his horror diarrhea.
The decision above the clouds came when the plane was already two US states further north. Over Virginia, the crew, together with the pilots, decided to get the sick passenger off board and to thoroughly clean the interior of the machine.
In a radio message to air traffic control, which was later circulated on X (formerly Twitter), the pilot announced: “We have a biohazard problem here. We have a passenger who had diarrhea all over the plane so we should come back to Atlanta.”
The full extent becomes clear in the descriptions of the passengers. One wrote: “My wife and I were on board. It was pure chaos. The pilots made the right decision to turn back. The floor crew ripped out all the carpet and put new one in.”
Another: “It was pretty bad. It trickled down the aisle and smelled awful. The vanilla-scented disinfectant just made everything smell like vanilla ash….”
Two hours after takeoff, DL194 landed back in Atlanta. The sick passenger was treated by paramedics, and the plane was cleaned and disinfected. So good that the flight didn’t actually have to be cancelled: Five hours later, the passengers were able to continue their journey. The plane finally landed in Barcelona with a delay of around eight hours.
After the diarrhea disaster, Delta Airlines only announced that there had been an unexpected medical emergency. It continued: “Our teams worked as quickly and safely as possible to thoroughly clean the aircraft and get our customers to their destinations. We sincerely apologize to our customers for the delay and inconvenience with their travel plans.”