Medical incidents sometimes happen in the skies, forcing planes to divert. But the passengers and crew of a Delta Air Lines flight on Friday encountered a uniquely messy situation and had to return to Atlanta due to a passenger’s diarrhea.

Delta Flight 194 on an Airbus A350 from Atlanta to Barcelona turned back, with the pilot telling air traffic control: “It’s just a biohazard issue. We’ve had a passenger that had diarrhea all the way through the airplane,” according to a clip from LiveATC.net posted on social media.

According to data on the flight on FlightRadar24, the plane was flying above Virginia on Friday evening when it made its U-turn.

Delta called it an “onboard medical issue” that prompted the plane carrying 336 passengers to return to Atlanta. The flight eventually got to Barcelona on Saturday, eight hours late.

“Our teams worked as quickly and safely as possible to get our customers to their final destination,” Delta said in a written statement. “We sincerely apologize to our customers for the delay and inconvenience to their travel plans.”

No information was released on the condition of the passenger with the medical issue.

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Angie McBrayer, ex-wife of James Aaron McBrayer, leans her head on her son Sam McBrayer as she and her three children and two grandchildren (from left) Jackson McBrayer, 3, Piper Jae McBrayer, 7, Katy Isaza, and Jordan McBrayer, visit the grave of James McBrayer, Thursday, November 20, 2025, in Tifton. He died after being restrained by Tift County sheriff's deputies on April 24, 2019. His ex-wife witnessed the arrest and said she thought the deputies were being rough but did not imagine that McBrayer would die. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC