U.S. Airways: Vomit Chain Reaction Caused By Strange Odor Causes Sick Crew And Passengers To Land In Rome

U.S. Airways vomit-plagued Flight US797 came to an abrupt end when the airplane was forced to make an unscheduled landing thanks to a scene that Gawker called something “straight out of your worst nightmare.” The ill-fated flight departed Tel Aviv, Israel’s Ben Gurion airport Friday night. Shortly thereafter, things took an unexpected and horrifying turn.

The U.S. Airways Airbus A330 was en route from Israel to Philadelphia when a mysterious odor caused four pilots, 10 other crew members, and two passengers on the plane to become seriously ill and vomit all over the aisles. The flight was rerouted to Rome’s Fiumicino Airport. By the time the airplane landed in Italy, all 14 members of the crew and two of the flight’s 129 passengers had succumbed to the strange smell.

Without adequate ventilation, the vomiting passengers and crew caused a chain reaction; some who didn’t vomit from the unidentified odor likely threw up from the close proximity to other regurgitating cabin attendants. Yet others aboard the U.S. Airways flight reported suffering red eyes and nausea related to the incident.

Three crew members were so ill that they had to be rushed to a clinic via ambulance upon touching down at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport, according to an NBC News report. Additional sick staff were treated and released at the same clinic.

American Airlines spokeswoman Martha Thomas provided an assurance that the unscheduled landing was completed safely, and all passengers impacted by the U.S. Airways vomit incident were accommodated on other flights. Maintenance workers are actively searching for the source of the smell that sickened every pilot and crew member on the flight in addition to two unlucky passengers.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, another scary U.S. Airways incident took place when a passenger sneezed and then told fellow travelers that he had been to Africa, implying that he could be infected with Ebola. What he thought was a harmless joke turned into something far more serious when several men wearing blue HAZMAT suits boarded the plane to remove the man and his luggage. The man was taken to a medical unit, where he underwent screening for signs of the Ebola virus while his fellow passengers sat and waited for two hours as the flight was checked and cleared for takeoff.

Comments are welcome. What would you do if every pilot and crew member on your flight got sick as in the recent U.S. Airways vomit incident?

[Image via morgueFile]