This odd divert request caught the attention of aviation geeks the world over.
This odd divert request caught the attention of aviation geeks the world over.
A scatological catastrophe struck Delta Airways passengers this weekend.
A transatlantic flight made the decision to turn back for America after the pilot radioed in the ‘biohazard issue’ on Friday night.
The service from Georgia to Barcelona in Spain, DL194, made the unusual call to air traffic control roughly an hour and a half into the flight.
“We’ve had a passenger who’s had diarrhoea all the way through the airplane, so they want us to come back to Atlanta,” the captain of the A350 was recorded saying.
This unusual divert request caught the attention of aviation geeks the world over, who tuned in to hear more about the incident.
Plane-spotter TheNewArea51 tweeted a clip of the flight audio from www.liveatc.net (Live Air Traffic Control) after being asked why the plane was being turned round.
“A passenger posted here asking why her son’s flight was turning around,” they said.
A Delta Airlines Airbus A350 turned around back to Atlanta Friday night because of diarrhea throughout the airplane from a passenger and it’s a biohazard. 👀🥴
The FAA flight strip for DL194 was posted to Reddit (📷xStang05x) Also a passenger posted here asking why her son’s… pic.twitter.com/VWbkB47wF1
Sharing the FAA flight strip for DL194, which was posted to Reddit, the printout spelled out the request for traffic control: “DIVERT TO ATL - PASSENGER DIARRHEA ALL OVER.”
Already inconvenienced, the divert came on top of the Europe-bound service departing two hours late.
One traveller replied to the thread, claiming their partner had been on the flight.
“It was pretty bad,” they said. “It [had] dribbled down the aisle, [and] smelled horrible.”
The flight strips wrote the diarrhoea divert request large. Photo / Reddit; Stang05
The service, which was already running late, was further held for leaning, meaning the rescheduled flight did not depart until shortly before 3am on Saturday.
Doubling the already eight-hour long-haul service, the delay was not the only unfortunate knock-on effect of the “biohazard” incident.
While Delta was forced to replace the crew, whose hours had been exceeded, they could not put on a new aircraft.
Passengers spent the entirety of the eight hours and 13 minutes in the same plane, with lingering smells.
The “vanilla-scented disinfectant” only made the situation worse claimed one traveller.
A spokesperson for the airline confirmed a “medical issue” had caused it to divert back to point of origin at ATL.
In a statement to Insider, the carrier apologised for the inconvenience.
“Our teams worked as quickly and safely as possible to thoroughly clean the airplane and get our customers to their final destination. We sincerely apologise to our customers for the delay and inconvenience to their travel plans.”
The diarrhoea disaster came during a rough week for Delta. The divert came just four days after an incident involving another service en route to Milan in which severe turbulence shook the service, injuring 11 on board.
