On Friday (Sept. 1), the pilot of a Delta flight heading to Barcelona, Spain from Atlanta made the difficult decision to turn the plane around after a case of severely runny diarrhea caused biohazardous conditions. The mess created by the event forced the U-turn before the plane reached the Atlantic Ocean.

Delta’s clean-up crews at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) took approximately five hours to strip out the original carpeting and thoroughly sanitize the plane. Afterward, they received praise from passengers and others for their rapid response and professional handling of the incident. It took approximately eight hours for the 336 passengers to reach Barcelona, but few complained. For the most part, they held back any anger about the delay.

Additional details from TMZ emerged on Tuesday (Sept. 5) after a Twitter user named Xansby Swanson (arbyswehavethe2) released video footage. The user posted:

“Pretty much how Ned explained. Haven’t laughed harder than his phone call to me at midnight to explain why he was still in America. He said it was the funniest thing he’s ever experienced.”

The video revealed blue center aisle carpeting extensively stained by brown spots and streaks. Audio taken by air traffic control revealed that the passenger leaked feces “all the way through the plane.” The onboard airline staff attempted to cover it with paper towels and other materials.

Although no smell remained after the cleaning crews completed their job, one passenger reported that the plane smelled so badly before landing in Atlanta that staff attempted to cover it using a vanilla-based disinfectant spray. Instead of alleviating the situation, it apparently caused the plane to smell like “vanilla s**t.” Another traveler claimed it smelled better after the cleaning.

Delta released a statement explaining that they had to reroute the aircraft because of a medical emergency. The sick passenger received immediate medical care on Friday from EMTs. As far as incidents go, it could be worse.