On Friday, an international Delta flight bound for sunny Barcelona was forced to U-turn back to its starting point, Atlanta, for an exceedingly rare air travel horror: a passenger had suffered diarrhea throughout the plane's aisle so extensively that completing the flight was deemed untenable.
News of the incident first hit Reddit's r/ATC subreddit, to which a user shared alarming FAA flight information marking the ill-fated flight's decision to turn around.
"DIVERT TO ATL — PASSENGER DIARRHEA ALL OVER A/C," the flight strip read. "BIOHAZARD."
We tracked one of the plane's unlucky passengers down — and they confirmed that the diarrhea was, in fact, "ALL OVER" the cabin aisles, just as that flight strip read.
"I woke up and there was a bit of a strange smell," the passenger, who chose to remain anonymous while speaking of his Diarrhea Plane experience, told Futurism, adding that the flight attendants were forced to perform some DIY ingenuity to deal with the excrement.
"They found everything they could use," said the passenger, explaining that the airline staff used aprons to craft "makeshift biohazard suits" to wear while dealing with the defecatory disaster. Blankets and napkins, meanwhile, were utilized to cover the feces.
You might be imagining that Delta obviously just got these travelers a new plane, right? After all, this one was covered in human feces. But alas, there seemingly weren't enough jets to go around, and according to the passenger, the airline ultimately settled the issue by simply ripping out the Airbus' soiled carpets and giving the passenger plane an extra-thorough clean before reboarding it.
"They actually took out all the carpets for one section of it," the passenger said. "We were waiting three hours at the airport while they were trying to clean it, but they couldn't clean it, so they had to rip off the carpet and change it."
"Then we were back on," they added. "No problem."
The passenger also noted that the plane's staff fully switched over for the second flight attempt, which we're glad to hear. Anyone who's forced to make a biohazard suit out of aprons and proceeds to manage an in-flight diarrhea crisis for the next several hours deserves some time off, not to mention a raise.
I need to understand how one explodes diarrhoea so violently that it extends the length of the aisle of an entire plane… while fully clothed.
Maybe it was a lady in a skirt.
If/when you get salmonella poisoning, you will find out. I didn't understand how people died of diarrhea-based diseases until then. You shit literal liquid every 30 minutes or less, for like two weeks, and it's unstoppable. In my case, it never really did get better. I got diagnosed with virally induced ibs and nothing ever worked quite right after that. It's been three years since I ate that recalled food (which wasn't in recall at the time, yay).
Salmonella feels less like a disease, and more like you accidentally ingested some sort of rat poison and your body is desperately trying to get it out by making you vomit and shit like crazy so it doesn't stay in you.
It's the only time I actually wished for a cork, or perhaps adult diapers. It was a new low for me, I felt like I was gonna die, lol.
Holy shit. You still have problems?
My doctor told me shitting 4-5 times a day ain't normal, lol. Things seem to slowly be getting better though. I dunno if my body will ever truely go back to 100%. Some say salmonella damages your immune system permanently, and based off my ass, I fucking believe it.
I think I've been constipated 2-3 times in the last few years since then, and I savor the feeling, lol. My hope that in another few years...perhaps I'll be back down to 1-2 times a day.
Salmonella can hide out in the body and get reactivated again later so I’m not surprised. Plus your gut flora took a massive beating back then.
It's been like 15 years for me after a similar situation and 1-2 times a day is no problem, but the window to get to a bathroom is shorter than I once remember, and any kind of stress, particularly in the morning, makes for a bad time (early travel days, etc).
Stress certainly does it to me too.
Try some anti diarrhea meds bro
Solved it right there, did ya?
They said they’re under the care of a physician, so I think it’s safe to say they’ve gone through a few ideas.
I have, it's just a bit overkill, like playing the piano with a claw hammer. I need a gentle touch, haha.
Bacterial induced IBS, but yikes.
Cholera makes poo even more.
Poo +
Get out of seat at back of plane.
Turbulence knocks you on your ass and shite out of your ass.
At this point the floodgates have opened and you need to just get to the toilet asap for damage control.
Run down aisle with shite dripping out of your trouser leg.
Read about the time you "exploded like a chocolate grenade in the middle of the plane" in the paper.
I'm picturing the guy running up and down the plane, just spraying shit everywhere like a South park episode.
"Hot hot hot hot hot hot!"
Probably was waiting for the toilet and just couldn't hold it, then was running back and forth between bathrooms trying to get in one.
I was on a Ryanair flight a few years ago, and out of 3-4 toilets that should have been working, only one was. And a staff member had to hold the door shut on that. The queue was all the way down the plane for like 3 hours of the 4 hour journey.
Sounds like a Larry David skit 😂
Tubgirl's cousin perhaps?
Ate airport sushi while going commando. Then boarding a 9 hour flight.
Some people live life in the moment.
I live life one fart gamble at a time.
There's a truck that delivers food to a factory near where i work, they have all the usual service station teir packaged sandwiches and whatever.
We call it the "yuck truck" because straya but anyway I used to buy sushi there on occasion to test my limits.
In America they're called the Roach Coach.
I'm stealing that lmao