‘Biohazard’ Event on United Airlines Plane Forces Emergency Landing as Flight Attendants Become Ill

The flight from Houston to Boston was diverted to Washington-Dulles after a customer experienced a medical issue, a United representative tells PEOPLE

A United Airlines flight traveling from Houston to Boston was diverted due to a “biohazard” that left crew members vomiting.

Flight UA2477 made an emergency landing in Washington-Dulles after a customer experienced a medical issue, a United representative told PEOPLE in a statement.

“The aircraft was deep cleaned and subsequently departed for Boston later that afternoon,” the airline said, adding that no one among the 155 passengers and six crew members aboard the Boeing 737-800 needed medical assistance upon arrival.

An audio clip of the pilot’s emergency call that was shared on social media revealed that travelers were requesting masks due to what he refers to as a biohazard.

“I talked to the crew and it sounds like it’s quite bad back there. It’s still really bad. The crew is vomiting, and passengers all around are asking for masks,” the pilot is heard saying in a recording shared on X.

"With this kind of being a biohazard, I think we need to get this plane on the ground ASAP," he continues.

The tracking website FlightAware show that UA2477 left Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport at 9:39 a.m. CT, traveling for just under three hours before landing at Dulles International Airport at 1:36 p.m ET. Passengers later took off from Dulles at 5:17 p.m. the same day and arrived at Boston Logan International Airport at 7:55 p.m.

This is far from the only similar incident on a flight in the past year.

In September 2023, a Delta flight from Atlanta to Barcelona made national news after it was diverted due to a passenger's case of severe diarrhea. In a clip from a call to dispatchers shared on social media, the pilot called the situation “a biohazard issue.”

Related: Delta Flight Diverted After Passenger Suffers Severe Case of Diarrhea

One X user, who said their partner was on the Delta flight, commented that it “smelled horrible” and that vanilla-scented disinfectant used to mask the odor “only made it smell like vanilla s---.”

Related: What Scenario is Gross Enough to Make a Plane Turn Around? A Flight Attendant of 40 Years Explains

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PEOPLE spoke to Robin Mermelstein, a Miami-based flight attendant who’s worked for a major airline for 40 years, about what happens during an event like this. She shared that while that she’d never been on a flight that turned around due to a biohazard, her flights have made landings for medical emergencies after an on-call physician was consulted.

Mermelstein said she’s worked on flights where passengers have vomited in their seats, and in those cases, airline staff are trained to use a biohazard fluid control powder called Red-Z that is poured over vomit to dissipate it.

Mermelstein added that she’d also been on flights where people have had “very bad” accidents in the airplane lavatory, but in extreme cases, she would just lock off that bathroom.

She noted that the difference with what happened on the Delta flight was likely that the diarrhea, a trail of which could be seen on the floor of the cabin’s aisle in a video shared on social media, “was everywhere.”

“If [the passenger with diarrhea] was walking to their seat and just had an accident all over, and then you have the smell, obviously, if it's in that many places, I think that that is probably the worst,” she said.

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