ATLANTA, GEORGIA: A transatlantic Delta flight from Atlanta to Barcelona was forced to turn around and make an emergency landing after a passenger on board experienced an episode of diarrhea that "ran all the way through the plane."
As per Daily Mail, the pilot on Delta Flight 194 requested a return due to the fecal incident on Friday, September 1, two hours into the transatlantic trip from Georgia to Spain over Virginia.
An aviation enthusiast posted a recording from LiveATC.com of an audio conversation between the pilots and air traffic control on the social network X, formerly Twitter. It seemed to confirm there wasn't a technical issue with the Airbus A350.
What happened on Delta Flight 194?
The captain succinctly described the issue in a text message to Air Traffic Control: "Divert to ATL — passenger diarrhea all over aircraft — biohazard."
Audio recordings from the air traffic control center also show one of the pilots verifying the scenario on the radio.
"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."
According to Flightradar24, flight DL194 arrived in Barcelona at 5:10 p.m. the following day — eight hours later than expected — with the help of a transfer of passengers and crew, however, the identity of the passenger is still unknown.
It is a mystery if the traveler who experienced diarrhea was on board the aircraft when it landed in Spain.
The aircraft was permitted to be cleaned once it touched down in Atlanta since flight records indicate it had been used for another voyage.
Passengers and online users reacted to the 'biohazard' issue
On Reddit, a purported flight strip from the Federal Aviation Administration was provided, which seemed to corroborate the scenario entailed "biohazard" all over the plane.
Both the passengers and the crew found their situation to be upsetting. Some people with knowledge of the circumstances made social media posts.
One passenger wrote on X, "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***. After the plane landed, it was thoroughly cleaned. They didn’t leave until around 2:30 am."
A second passenger wrote, "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. Considering the circumstances, the ground crew did a great job, along the attendants and the pilots."
Another social media user chimed in: "Sounds like Delta did the right thing here and makes sense they went back to Atlanta which is a major maintenance hub. I also heard that the carpet was replaced along with at least one seat."
Several X users shared funny memes and GIFs to resonate with the diarrhea 'biohazard' issue.
One user shared an image of a pilot and quipped, "I remember this exact mission in Resident Evil 6, Leon was never the same after this biohazard incident."
