‘Biological hazard’ on United Airlines flight forces emergency landing after flight attendant falls ill

A United Airlines flight from Houston to Boston was diverted due to a “biological hazard” that caused crew members to vomit.

A United Airlines representative told People magazine that flight UA2477 made an emergency landing at Washington Dulles Airport after a passenger experienced a medical issue.

“The aircraft was deep cleaned and departed for Boston later that afternoon,” the airline said, adding that none of the 155 passengers and six crew members on board the Boeing 737-800 required medical assistance upon arrival.

An audio clip of the pilot’s emergency call that was circulated on social media showed passengers asking for masks because of what he referred to as a biohazard.

“I spoke to the crew and it sounds like it’s pretty bad out there. It’s still really bad. The crew is vomiting and passengers are everywhere asking for face masks,” the pilot is heard saying in an audio recording. Shared on X.

“Given this type of biological hazard, I think we need to get this plane back to the ground as quickly as possible,” he adds.

Tracking Website: Flight Aware Data shows that flight UA2477 departed George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston at 9:39 a.m. Central time, traveling just under three hours before landing at Dulles International Airport at 1:36 p.m. Eastern time. Passengers then 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 to occur on a flight in the past year.

In September 2023, a Delta flight from Atlanta to Barcelona made national headlines after it was diverted due to a passenger suffering from severe diarrhea. In a video of the call with emergency personnel shared on social media, the pilot described the situation as a “serious biological issue.”

One X app user, who said his partner was on a Delta flight, commented that the smell was “so bad” and that the vanilla-scented sanitizer used to mask the smell “made it smell like vanilla only.”

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PEOPLE spoke with Robin Mermelstein, a Miami-based flight attendant who has worked for a major airline for 40 years, about what happens during an event like this. She said that while she has never been on a flight that was turned back due to a biohazard, she has had flights landed due to medical emergencies after consulting with an on-call doctor.

Mermelstein said she has worked on flights where passengers have vomited in their seats, and in those cases, airline staff are trained to use a hazardous liquid control powder called Red-Z that is poured onto the vomit to disperse it.

Mermelstein added that she had also been on flights where people had “really bad” incidents in the plane’s lavatory, but in extreme cases, she would lock it.

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

“if [the passenger with diarrhea] “I was walking to my seat and I had an accident everywhere, and then there was a bad smell, and obviously if it was in a lot of places, I think this is probably the worst,” she said.