By Christopher Bull
Delta Airlines flight DL194 from Atlanta to Barcelona was scheduled to depart last Friday at 8:47pm (local time). But after some time, one of the travelers became terribly ill.
Eventually his horror forced the pilots to turn back due to diarrhea.
The plane ended up above the clouds when it was already two US states further north. Over Virginia, the flight crew, along with the pilots, decided to get the sick passenger off the plane and thoroughly clean the interior of the engine.
In a radio message to air traffic control, later distributed on X (formerly Twitter), the pilot announced: “We have a life-threatening situation here. We have a passenger who had diarrhea throughout the flight, so we have to come back to Atlanta.
The full extent is evident in the travelers’ descriptions. One wrote: “My wife and I were on board. It was pure chaos. The pilots made the right decision to go back. The ground crew tore out all the carpets and put new ones in.
Another: “It was awful. It ran down the aisle and smelled horrible. The vanilla-scented disinfectant 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. It’s great that the flight didn’t actually have to be canceled: five hours later, the passengers were able to continue their journey. After an eight-hour delay the flight finally landed in Barcelona.
After the diarrhea disaster, Delta Airlines declared an unexpected medical emergency. It continued: “Our crews fully cleared the aircraft as quickly and safely as possible and got our customers to their destinations. We apologize for the delay and inconvenience to our customers’ travel plans.
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