X (Xansby Swanson)/Getty
Screenshot from the Delta flight diarrhea video
A man shared a video on X that he said shows the aftermath of an in-flight incident in which a passenger had a bout of diarrhea so bad that a Delta plane had to return to the Atlanta, Georgia, airport.
Xansby Swanson wrote on X on September 2, 2023, “Lil bro headed abroad rn but his plane had to go back to ATL an hour into the flight bc someone sh** up and down the aisle😂😭.” He then shared the video.
Be forewarned that the video, which you can watch later in this story, is somewhat graphic. A person named Dee W wrote on Twitter, “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.”
Here’s what you need to know:
A Pilot Told Air Traffic Controllers, ‘We Had a Passenger Who Had Diarrhea All the Way Through the Airplane’
The video shows what appears to be diarrhea smeared down the aisle of the plane, along with attempts to clean it up through some kind of paper placed at intervals down the aisle.
According to CNN, the Delta Airlines flight was headed to Barcelona after departing from Atlanta, Georgia, on September 1, 2023, when it was “forced to turn around over central Virginia” because of a passenger’s severe case of diarrhea.
“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,” a pilot on the Delta flight told air traffic control, according to audio posted on X.
A man named John Hurdt wrote on X, “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.”
The Delta Plane Eventually Was Cleaned & Made it to Barcelona, Spain, Reports Say
According to FlightAware, the plane was Delta flight 194.
The flight map shows the plane was in the air for over two hours before it circled back and returned to the Atlanta airport. The map shows it appear to do a U-turn in the air before heading back to the Georgia airport.
BBC reported that the plane eventually made it to Barcelona, Spain, the next day after being cleaned.
Delta told Insider the plane returned because of a “medical issue,” meaning it had to be cleaned, but the airline has not been more specific about the nature of the passenger’s illness.
“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,” Delta told Insider. “Delta flight 194 from Atlanta to Barcelona returned to Atlanta following an onboard medical issue.”
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Jessica McBride is a news reporter covering breaking news, politics and crime for Heavy. She is a former reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Waukesha Freeman newspapers in Wisconsin and is a senior journalism instructor at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. More about Jessica McBride
