A Delta flight traveling from Atlanta to Barcelona had to turn around on Friday due to a passenger's severe case of diarrhea that affected "all the way through" the plane, New York Post reported. The plane was two hours into the eight-hour journey from Atlanta, Georgia to Barcelona, Spain when it made a U-turn, per data from Flightradar24.
In an audio transmission from the flight deck posted on X, a pilot can be heard telling air traffic control, ''This is a biohazard issue. We've had a passenger who's had diarrhea all the way through the airplane, so they want us to come back to Atlanta."
Here's the tweet:
While the passenger responsible for the incident has not been identified, all passengers and crew were transferred to another flight. Upon its return to Atlanta, the plane underwent a thorough cleaning, allowing passengers to reboard the same aircraft for their trip to Barcelona. This delay caused the flight to be eight hours later than the originally scheduled time, as reported by Flightradar24.
It remains unclear whether the passenger who had the gastrointestinal issue was onboard when the flight eventually touched down in Spain.
Delta officials confirmed the occurrence of a ''medical issue'' on the flight, resulting in the emergency landing and subsequent cleaning. However, they did not provide specific details regarding the medical reason for the incident.
A Delta spokesperson expressed apologies to customers for the travel disruptions caused by the delay, stating, ''Our teams worked as quickly and safely as possible to thoroughly clean the airplane and get our customers to their final destination. We sincerely apologize to our customers for the delay and inconvenience to their travel plans.”
