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.
You know how when you are falling asleep but have an embarrassing memory jolt you awake? Or when you are driving and have a memory that makes you suddenly scream?
The shitter will never have internal peace. I can’t imagine much more of an embarrassing situation. Poor guy
My gf asked me what I’d do if I was the plane shitter
Without hesitation I simply replied “change my name and my face”
That’s pretty much all you can do
“Do you know how I got these scars?”
It’s a pretty shitty story honestly
I feel terrible for him too. Some people go their entire lives never knowing the kind of fear that develops with a bad case of diarrhea, and consequently don’t understand how horrible it is to live with IBS.
I have no words for what he’s going through, other than I hope he has family and friends that are more supportive than mine and more supportive than most commentors.
I have Crohn’s and have for years. People don’t realize how fucking cruel they are in these situations. It’s like belittling somebody with cognitive difficulties. I absolutely get it, poop is gross, and other people’s especially, but this is the second story like this in two months that I’ve seen and it’s always framed how terrible it is for the “normal” people who have this once in a lifetime bad experience rather than the person who deals with it and has to live with it every god-damned day.
And people should know that society is absolutely not made for people with various forms of IBD. It’s damn near unlivable and made worse by the fact that you can become someone’s joke or headline for a problem that society doesn’t want to accommodate for and is totally fine kicking you when you’re already at a low point. People lost their ever-loving minds when they had to stay in because of COVID. I’ve been living that life for over a decade, because I know that this is how people are.
it’s damn near unliveable and made worse by the fact that you can become someone’s joke or headline
I’ve only left my house like 6 times for doctor appointments in the last 5 years because I’ve got GI issues so bad I can’t be more than ten feet from a toilet or I can’t trust things might go wrong. I’m a complete shut-in because of issues like in the OP, and I’ve had zero social interaction for years now.
I’m sorry you have to go through this. It’s awful, and you’re right, there are no accommodations. Worse, it’s a joke, so that you don’t even want to discuss it with family or your doctors.
I’m so sorry. Nobody should have to endure this. I wish you didn’t. It’s life-ruining, and the worst part is you’re utterly alone, and no one can really understand.
I hope the person this article is about can somehow find peace from all this, though I rather doubt it.
I meant to respond to this the day you wrote it, but I got a bit distracted. At any rate, I appreciate the sentiments greatly. It is such an impossible situation for those of us who deal with this, but there is a bit of light even in knowing that someone else understands and can relate to the experience. I hope in the near future people like us can live life more fully without the current stigma attached to our conditions.
I dont have IBD, I have IBS-C/M but you get what I’m throwing down:
We didn’t choose these afflictions. Our lives are hell. A basic function of every living thing causes us pain daily, and outcomes like this run our lives.
I don’t go to places that don’t have a bathroom I can occupy for a lengthy period of time. I can barely get any relief at home as it is.
I totally get you. It’s a rough and painful way to live. People who don’t deal with it misunderstand what it is to have to experience this every day.
On the flip side, they are immune to any other “cringe attacks” that come up. Who knows it might be strangely liberating
Glass half full, love it!
Of what
We’ll duh, human excrement silly goose!
Poor guy for sure, but at this point I might just own it and get ahead of it. Get paid a few bucks to do an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, apologize profusely, blame it all on airline food or medication or something
I know one or two folks at work who would be talking non-stop about it on Monday if this were them.
Is that by Vasquez?
Style looks familiar.Yep, it’s from Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.
I hope they were on their way to the bathroom. If so I would have never left the bathroom for the remainder of the flight
In the full article, it said they kept the guy in the bathroom till a few minutes before landing. I’d absolutely refuse to leave the bathroom till it’s been deplaned
Same. I got so drunk on a plane once I was vomiting the whole last half of the flight. The flight attendants tried to get me to go back to my seat before we landed, but when they realized what bad shape I was in they let me stay in the lavatory until we landed.
I hope they let this shito bandito do the same.
did you learn your lesson at least? you dumb fuck have only yourself to blame.
shitto bandito might still have a medical excuse
Yes I did. Thank you for your concern.
for the remainder of my life
FTFY
I’m told it was a woman.
But women don’t poop.
Back and forth. Forever.
It really doesn’t matter though.
I’m so glad your empathetic comment is at the top of this thread. Thank you for being a good person who doesn’t take advantage of other people’s misfortune.
Oh god, the poor person who shat themselves into the international headlines. That’s one for the books. Poor bastard.
“Hey honey, how was your flight?”
Lol
You just know he wasn’t feeling well all day and probably knew he shouldn’t get in that flight
Maybe, but truly explosive diarrhea can come on suddenly.
How hard is it to reschedule a flight for illness if you don’t get the flight insurance?
IBD is a thing.
At least they aren’t named. Only the people they were with would know it was them.
Or they could even be proud.
“You ever take down a whole plane just by having diarrhea? I have.”
No but as a kid (8 or 9 years old) I shut down a restaurant by puking all over it. Not just for the night either, I closed them down for good. We went back to the area 2 weeks later and they were shuttered. That was the last time my parents refused to believe me when I told them I was feeling sick.
What did you eat that utterly crushed the spirit of a restaurant owner?
Right? Demon vomit capable of closing down a restaurant for good is kinda impressive.
“I’m so full of shit that a plane had to be diverted because of me”
The correct title is poo bastard
At least their name is not in this article.
They almost certainly knew they were sick if they coated the entire plane in dookie
“ill-fated diarrhea plane”
What a beautiful phrase. Shakespearean.
Maggie was on point with this article. “Defacatory disaster” is top tier journalism.
No “Crop dusting disaster”?
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Chef’s kiss for the image, with its brown trail.
Snakes on a plane part doodoo?
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.
Bacterial induced IBS, but yikes.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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!”
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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
I don’t know if it’s possible to literally die of embarrassment, but if there’s anytime I’d wish it was it would be in this situation if it happened to me
Maybe he was so embarrassed, he shat himself. Turning into a vicious cycle.
At least they didn’t force passengers to disembark or sit on the soiled seats like Air Canada did
Uh… what?
Air Canada apologizes after passengers told to sit in vomit-covered seats
https://cnn.com/cnn/travel/article/air-canada-vomit-apology-scli-intl/index.html
Assuming they mean this incident: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/air-canada-booted-passengers-vomit-filled-seats-1.6957790
Is this the end result of trying not to poop for three days?
Juice cleanse
Every form of “bowel cleanse” is useless at best and deletrious at worst. Usually leans towards the latter.
As someone with severe GI issues, this is exactly why I won’t travel. I can’t imagine the embarrassment that person is now living with. I’ve seen like six articles on this in my newsfeed today. I’d be utterly mortified.
I don’t even like commenting on this because I’m contributing to its visibility, but GI issues are completely debilitating and no joke. You can’t control it, and even adults don’t seem to understand. I’m just so sad for the person at the centre of this who will never live it down. :(
I sat out on a whitewater rafting trip with friends because I couldn’t be that far from a bathroom. After many years of testing other problems, I went to a GI doctor for the stomach issues. I had undiagnosed celiac disease.
I share that sentiment- that poor person. To society’s credit, I have not yet seen any posts or articles with an image or their identity. Hopefully it stays that way.
I wanna see what it looked like
The brown exhaust coming out of the plane in the article was a nice touch.
I. Don’t. Huh? How? The passenger was wearing pants right? What??
Any parents know. Twice I’ve seen kids shit so hard it came out the neck of their shirts.
When my little sister was a toddler, she was wearing one of those one piece zip up pajama suits.
Just her, me, and my dad home one day. Suddenly smell an awful, gut-churning smell in the house.
Go to pick up sister, sister goes squish in a place that should not squish. Noped out (I was 9 at the time) and told dad.
Dad notices the squish. Takes the toddler to the sink and unzips the pajama suit.
SHE FILLED IT.
UP TO THE TOP.
ZERO SURFACE AREA LEFT UNSOILED.
Several hours of gagging later, we survive.
Pajama suit is now a cursed object. Tossed it in the fire pit outside to avoid the smell being inside forever.
Forever burned into my brain.
now that’s a picture I didn’t want to have in mind
Wish I’d never read that
It happens way more often than you’d expect, since you’d expect it to happen zero times.
Holy shit (no pun intended). Now that’s a sight to behold.
Maybe it was… copious amounts… and gravity utilized the pant leg openings…
Brb gonna puke from my own mental image
Do you tie your pant legs closed?
This is a fetish thing, isn’t it?
Frankly I can’t see why they didn’t just alert ATC that there was a “health incident” and then tell ground crews on a closed channel what to expect. Would have potentially limited how broadly this news went out
It’s going to leak from a passenger anyway (pun intended), so it doesn’t really matter if they try to hide it.
Likely true, but I think the virality was helped by hearing the pilot’s message and it ending up on Reddit
From r/ATC:
279 DAL194 H/A359/L 3157 496 PSK125017 E0153 360 KATL./. GVE224037… FLASK.OZZZI1.KATL ODIVERT TO ATL- PASSENGER DIARRHEA ALL OVER A/ C- BIOHAZARD
My favorite part of this story has consistently been imagining the poor person that has to figure out how to communicate this in so few words. Like, “How should I word this? Restroom mishap? No, it’s not just the restroom. Passenger soiled in aisle? No, it’s mo–” “BITCH JUST SAY DIARRHEA ALL OVER JESUS!”
Not over Jesus too!
Holy shit.
(golf clap)
I cant breathe
This is it- This is the comment that made my wife and I laugh so hard it hurts. Thank you for this.
My nightmare is to get a case of the shits while in a tube 7 miles up in the air.
I wonder if the cleaned plane still had some lingering aroma. They have just booked flights on competitors for these passengers or offered them a hotel
