Flight forced to turn back after passenger had diarrhoea 'all over aircraft'

04 September 2023 , 21:54

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The Delta flight was forced to turn around (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

A pilot was forced to turn their flight around when a passenger lost control of their bowels at 37,000 feet.

The Delta flight took off two hours late from Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday night, and was bound for Barcelona in Spain. Just as the passengers were settling into the long flight however an unfortunate person suffered diarrhoea.

According to a message sent back to air traffic control, the resulting mess went “everywhere”. The pilot of the flight told the ground: “It’s just a biohazard issue, we had a passenger who had diarrhoea all the way through the aeroplane.”

The express.co.uk said the FAA flight strip - a small piece of paper air traffic controllers use to monitor flights - read: “Divert to ATL - passenger diarrhoea all over aircraft - biohazard”. The FAA flight strip for DL194 was posted on Reddit while one man questioned on X - formerly Twitter - why the plane, which his son was riding in, had turned around.

He wrote: “Delta any idea what’s going on with DL194? In flight for almost two hours and now heading back to Atlanta with my son on board. Would like an update on what the issue is and what the update is on getting to Barcelona."

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Once the plane returned at 10:39pm, it was cleaned and Delta had to find a new crew as the old crew reportedly had timed out. Earlier this month a dad left plane passengers baffled recently when he suggested the pilot simply "fly around for a bit longer" before landing so he could have more time to get his toddler-aged son to sit down.

A passenger on the flight said the dad had two children with him who were both being "a little boisterous" and kept standing up in their seats, and when the time came for everyone to fasten their seatbelts ready for landing, one of his kids refused to sit down. When approached by a flight attendant, the dad refused to take control of the situation and demanded the flight's landing be delayed for "another half an hour" to let his son tire himself out.

In a post on Reddit, the gobsmacked passenger recalled: "A couple of days ago, I was flying from the UK to Central Europe. There was a dad a few rows ahead of me who sat in the aisle seat with his two toddler-aged kids (I'd guess between 18 months and two years old) taking the middle and window seats. The kids were a little boisterous, standing on seats and generally being a bit loud, but it was a relatively short flight and I had headphones, so whatever.”

Antony Thrower