"That smell is not human": Delta Airlines diarrhea flight video sparks wild meme fest online

On Friday, September 1, a Delta Airlines flight from Atlanta, Georgia, USA, to Barcelona, Spain, was forced to take a U-turn and make an emergency landing after a passenger suffered from severe diarrhea "all the way through the plane," creating a biohazard incident on board.

The aircraft was an Airbus A350, which was two hours into its trans-Atlantic flight when the incident occurred, and the pilot asked air traffic control for a turnaround. As per the recording shared on X (formerly Twitter) by LiveATC.com, the pilot was heard saying:

“This is a biohazard issue.”

As soon as the news and videos of the incident surfaced on the internet, netizens started making all kinds of jokes. In this regard, an X user commented under @thenewarea51’s post,

"THAT SMELL IS NOT HUMAN"

A netizen makes fun of the Delta diarrhea incident. (Image via X/Ryan)

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“Passengers on the diarrhea delta”: Footage of Delta Airlines diarrhea fiasco triggers hilarious online reactions

The news of the Delta flight turning around and making an emergency landing as a passenger suffered diarrhea on the plane and pooped all over the floor of the aircraft has now gone viral on social media, with images and videos being circulated.

The flight was bound for Spain from the USA but had to make a U-turn within two hours of its departure on Friday. In fact, the pilot informed air traffic control of the situation and cited the biohazard issue.

“We’ve had a passenger who’s had diarrhea all the way through the airplane, so they want us to come back to Atlanta,” the recording stated.

So far, the identity of the passenger remains undisclosed. It is also a mystery whether they contracted the digestive issue on the plane or were already suffering from it before boarding the Delta flight. Regardless, as soon as the news became viral on social media, it has been a meme fest.

What’s interesting is that, following the emergency landing, the passengers and the crew were transferred onto another flight, DL194, which arrived in Barcelona on Saturday, September 2, at 5:10 pm local time, nearly eight hours after the scheduled time, as reported by Flightradar24. Whether or not the diarrhea-stricken passenger was also on board the backup flight remains unknown.

As per the New York Post, an alleged Federal Aviation Authority flight strip was shared on Reddit, which further revealed that the situation indeed was a "biohazard." The news outlet also reported that the cleaning crews on the ground were able to "scrub down the aircraft once it landed in Atlanta," as Delta Airlines records prove that the same aircraft was used for another flight.

However, despite the viral stature of the news, Delta authorities did not confirm the word “diarrhea” nor did it elaborate on the incident. Instead, in a statement to the Insider, they said that due to a “medical issue” the flight had to be directed back to Atlanta for emergency cleaning. A spokesperson stated:

“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.”

This was not the first incident in recent times in which a Delta flight had to be redirected. Only days prior to the diarrhea biohazard incident on the Atlanta-Barcelona flight, another flight from Atlanta en route to Milan, Italy, also had to turn around on August 29. The reason was severe turbulence, which in fact injured a dozen passengers on board before it touched the ground. They had to be hospitalized.