I had the worst diarrhea ever on a plane — they had to land and cancel the flight: ‘I am a biohazard’
Reinertsen regaled over 20 million social media spectators with the sordid details of her plane pooping experience. Rafael Ben-Ari – stock.adobe.com
Posted For: Hauviette
A United Airlines flight was reportedly taken out of service after a passenger suffered a severe bout of food poisoning that left the aircraft requiring a hazardous-materials cleaning.
Meghan Reinertsen, a frequent flyer, said her sudden illness led to the cancellation of a scheduled departure from Indianapolis. In a TikTok video that has since been viewed more than 20 million times, Reinertsen apologized to fellow travelers who were affected by the disruption.
“I single-handedly got a flight canceled,” she told viewers. “If that changed the course of your life in a really negative way, I’m truly sorry. But it also wasn’t without pain and suffering.”
Reinertsen, a nanny and aspiring actress, explained that she was returning to the United States from Portugal to attend a film premiere when she began feeling intense abdominal distress during the flight.
“I remember thinking, ‘Something is brewing. Something is happening that I am not prepared to deal with,’” she said.
That “something,” she later learned, was food poisoning, which she believes came from an undercooked hamburger she ate the night before. According to the Cleveland Clinic, food poisoning symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea can be severe, even if the illness itself is rarely life-threatening.
@meghanreinertsen Part 1 of how I personally got a United flight cancelled #storytime #airplane #diarrhea @United Airlines ♬ original sound – Meghan Reinertsen
Airline-related food illnesses have caused disruptions before. In recent months, an Etihad Airways passenger was removed from a flight after repeatedly vomiting, and a Delta Airlines flight from Detroit to Amsterdam was forced to divert to New York after multiple passengers became ill from allegedly spoiled food.
In Reinertsen’s case, the plane did not make an emergency landing, but her condition rendered the aircraft’s lavatory unusable for other passengers.
“I was sweating, crying, and cramping,” she recalled. With the seatbelt sign still on, she feared she wouldn’t make it unless she rushed to the bathroom.
“For the next 20 minutes,” she said, “I experienced more diarrhea than any human should in their lifetime.”
While confined to the small airplane restroom, Reinertsen also began vomiting and requested assistance from a flight attendant. She remained in the lavatory for the remainder of the flight.
After landing, she was informed that the aircraft’s next scheduled flight had been canceled so a hazmat team could perform a deep cleaning. Reinertsen was escorted off the plane in a wheelchair and left at baggage claim.
Unfortunately, her ordeal didn’t end there. She said she later became sick again at her hotel, but described the flight cancellation as the most mortifying part of the experience.
“They canceled the flight because of me,” she said. “They had to bring in a hazmat team because they didn’t know if I’d brought something back from Portugal.”
Joking about the situation, Reinertsen added, “I’m a biohazard. I’m patient zero.”
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