A flight from the Canary Islands to London was canceled and its passengers made to disembark after someone onboard the aircraft defecated on the bathroom floor.
The easyJet flight on Sunday evening — what was to be a four-hour trip from the island of Tenerife to London’s Gatwick airport — had already been delayed by several hours when the incident occurred.
Aaran Gedhu, a passenger on board, told CNN Travel the scheduled plane had been switched out for a smaller one, causing some customers to be turned away at boarding. Those who made it on board, two hours after the scheduled departure, then had to wait on the ground for more than an hour while bags were offloaded due to the aircraft being overweight.
As the delay extended, the atmosphere on the packed flight was characterized by “suspense and anger,” Gedhu said.
“EasyJet planes, as they are, just aren’t very comfortable – it’s just a basic seat with okayish legroom room. So everyone was just a bit tense,” he said.
“Then, the pilot finally gave the all-clear, and then he said that it will be about 20 minutes until departure,” recalled Gedhu. “And that’s when the incident happened.”
He said word spread through the cabin that someone had defecated on the bathroom floor. An unpleasant smell followed.
No one was happy about this situation, said Gedhu, but he says most believed the incident was an accident.
“It was just a very uncomfortable experience. Obviously, the plane was in an unsanitary state. So they had to get external cleaners out from the airport to clean it,” he said.
Another passenger, Kitty Streek, was less forgiving. She told CNN Travel: “We obviously can’t prove whether the person simply had an accident or if they had done this out of anger for the delayed flight but it was hard not to be angry either way as nobody wants to be stranded in another country.”
According to Gedhu, passengers remained in their seats during the cleaning — and only afterward did the captain inform them they would have to disembark.
It was another 30 minutes before passengers deplaned, according to Gedhu. He said he was put up in a hotel overnight – around 45 minutes drive from the airport – before boarding a specially scheduled “rescue” flight the following day.
EasyJet confirmed the initial delays on flight EZY8054 on October 15 occurred due to “safety reasons.”
Sunday’s flight cancellation follows several recent disruptive incidents involving bodily fluids on board airplanes.
In September, a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Barcelona was forced to turn around after a passenger had diarrhea. Earlier that month, Air Canada issued an apology after two passengers were told to sit in seats that hadn’t been cleaned properly after being covered in vomit during an earlier flight.
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