Flight Forced To Return To Departure City Due To 'Biohazard Issue' Arising From Passenger's Unfortunate Bout Of Diarrhea

Sep 08, 2023

A Delta Airlines flight from Atlanta to Barcelona faced a harrowing ordeal when it was forced to return to its departure city due to a passenger's severe bout of diarrhea that, according to the pilot, affected the entire plane. 

Flight DL194, with 336 people on board, departed on schedule at 8:47 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, and was over Virginia when a decision was made to abandon the journey. 

The captain informed the local air traffic control of their unique situation, alerting them of the need to divert the flight due to a "biohazard” as one passenger suffered severe digestive issues. The people on board the Airbus A350 aircraft were understandably distressed by the situation. 

According to CNN, the plane returned to the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport two hours after its original departure time based on its FlightAware tracks. Flight DL194 touched down in Atlanta at 10:40 p.m. 

Upon landing, Delta Airlines immediately took action to address the biohazard by conducting a thorough cleaning of the aircraft. Thankfully, the flight was not entirely canceled. The identity of the passenger with diarrhea remains undisclosed but those aboard, including the crew, were transferred to another plane. 

Despite hours of delay, Flight DL194 proceeded to Barcelona and arrived on Saturday afternoon without any further incidents. It's unclear, however, whether the passenger with the digestive issue was on board when the plane landed in Spain.

Per NBC News, Delta Airlines acknowledged the unexpected incident through a spokesperson who remained tight-lipped about the specifics. The company also issued an apology for the "delay and inconvenience" this incident caused other people's travel plans. 

Audio recordings from air traffic control confirmed the pilot's message, as shared on social media.  

"Divert to ATL — passenger diarrhea all over aircraft," the pilot's voice could be heard, alerting ground control. "It's just a biohazard issue; we had a passenger who had diarrhea all the way through the airplane, so they want us to come back to Atlanta." 

Some passengers also took to social media to share their experience on that flight. 

"My partner was on that flight! It was pretty bad," wrote Dee W. "It was dribbled down the aisle, smelled horrible. The vanilla scented disinfectant used on it only made it smell like vanilla s***. After the plane landed, it was thoroughly cleaned. They didn’t leave until around 2:30 am." 

Another passenger, John Hurdt, praised the cleanup operation.

"Both my wife and I were on the flight. It was a mess," Hurdt posted. "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." 

A video of the incident has emerged, showing the messy trail of diarrhea left by the struggling passenger. Macey Charboneau, who uploaded the video, indicated that the passenger was a woman and she hoped that she was eventually OK.

On Reddit, another passenger detailed that the woman got up from her seat 15 minutes after taking off to seek help from the flight attendant. 

"Initially people thought someone just had bad gas. Once we were on the ground we heard it went about 20 rows," Redditor chef5674 wrote. "I can’t speak for what it was like in the back while we were flying back, but everyone seemed calm. Once on the ground, everyone just hung out at the gate waiting for updates."

It’s hard to imagine what the unfortunate passenger went through! What do you think happened to her? Do you have friends who are frequent fliers who might be interested to know about this story? Then tell them all about it by passing this along!