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 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.
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.