US airline diverts flight after passenger has 'diarrhoea all the way through the airplane'

A Delta Air Lines flight between Atlanta and Barcelona was diverted last week after one of its passengers had a severe bout of diarrhoea, United States media reported on Monday (Sep 4).

Flight DL194 was about 50 minutes into its journey between the US and Spain on Sep 1 when it began to turn around, data from flight tracker Flightradar24 showed.

It arrived back in Atlanta just over an hour later.

Audio of an exchange between one of the aircraft's pilots and air traffic control was posted on social media.

In the recording, the pilot reports that there is "a biohazard issue" on board.

"We've had a passenger who had diarrhoea all the way through the airplane, so they want us to come back to Atlanta," he says.

A spokesperson for Delta confirmed with Fox News Digital that the flight was diverted as a result of a "medical issue", but the airline did not provide further details on the nature of the issue.

"Delta flight 194 from Atlanta to Barcelona returned to Atlanta following an onboard medical issue," the spokesperson told Fox.

"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."

Flightradar24 data showed that the plane eventually left Atlanta again at about 3am local time on Sep 2 and arrived in Barcelona eight hours later than scheduled.