Passengers onboard diarrhea plane share ordeal
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Grossed-out passengers have detailed the ordeal of being stuck on a Delta flight that was forced to turn back after someone could not contain their explosive diarrhea — which left crew ripping out the carpet to contain the “biohazard.”
“It was an experience that I hope no one has to go through,” Marie Beals-Basinger told the Daily Mail of the flight that was diverted back to Atlanta on Friday, just two hours into its eight-hour trek to Barcelona, Spain.
“I hope the poor woman that had this experience recovers,” she said of the sickened passenger.
The pilot of Flight DL194 had warned air traffic control there was “a biohazard issue” with “a passenger who’s had diarrhea all the way through the airplane.”
“It was dribbled down the aisle, smelled horrible,” one person tweeted of their partner’s disgusting experience on the flight.
“It was pretty bad … The vanilla-scented disinfectant used on it only made it smell like vanilla s–t,” Dee W. wrote on X, the new name for Twitter.
“The flight was met by emergency vehicles and EMTs carried the sick passenger off the plane,” Dee W added. “After the plane landed, it was thoroughly cleaned. They didn’t leave until around 2:30 a.m.”
John Hudt, who said he was also on the flight, described it as a “mess.”
“The pilots made the right decision to turn around,” he tweeted.
He said that while the plane was grounded, the crew “ripped out the carpet” and replaced it.
“Considering the circumstances, the ground crew did a great job, along [with] the attendants and pilots,” Hudt tweeted on Monday.
The contaminated cabin was scrubbed by staff, while the passengers on Flight DL194 were transferred and made it to Barcelona at 5:10 p.m. the next day.
Beals-Basinger, meanwhile, said she was in first class and was therefore away from the mess.
“We did see Delta crew attendees running back and forth in protective coverings or with gloves,” Beals-Basinger told the Mail.
“They told us we would have to get off the flight because they had to do a thorough cleaning and replace the carpet.”
She said she and her husband were flying to Barcelona to catch the Celebrity Reflection cruise ship.
“We were worried that we would miss the cruise,” she said. “We sat at the airport for hours, all of us so exhausted. Finally, we were allowed back on the plane.”
“Delta was very accommodating, they gave continual updates,” she noted.
Fortunately, Beals-Basinger said, the cruise ship was still waiting for them at the dock “even though we were about three hours late.”
Xansby Swanson, who originally posted the footage from the flight, said his little brother who was on board found the situation hilarious.
He said he hasn’t “laughed harder than his phone call to me explaining why he was still in America. He said it was the funniest thing he’s ever experienced.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the airline said: “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.”
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