Planes are rarely forced to land except in extreme circumstances, like engine failure and broken windows. But now, we can add “poor hygiene” to the list. Last Tuesday, a Transavia Airlines flight from Las Palmas to Amsterdam was forced to make an emergency landing because of a passenger’s extreme body odor.
According to a report from the Belgian news site VRT, the smell was so bad that passengers became “so violently ill they vomited or fainted in their seats.” It even prevented in-flight food and drinks from being served. We can’t imagine flight attendant training covers how to handle passengers who simply forgot to shower, but they did their best, quarantining the man in the bathroom to contain the stench. It might have been too little, too late. About two hours into the flight, the decision was made to make an emergency landing in Faro, Portugal, where the man was escorted from the flight and examined by a medical team.
