“We Need to Get This Plane On the Ground ASAP”: United Airlines Jet Makes Emergency Diversion After Flight Attendant Biohazard

A United Airlines flight from Houston to Boston was forced to make an emergency diversion to Washington Dulles on Sunday morning after the pilots reported a flight attendant ‘biohazard’ onboard the Boeing 737MAX-8.

Few details of what went down on United flight UA2477 are known save for a recording of live air traffic control communication between the pilot and ground controllers, as well as the airline confirming that a medical issue had occurred.

The flight departed Houston Intercontinental ar around 10:00 am on July 28 but with an hour and 40 minutes of the flight to Boston still left to go, the pilots requested permission to divert the flight because a flight attendant was vomiting at the back of the plane.

That ordinarily wouldn’t be cause to divert an entire planeload of passengers but the pilot explained that a doctor was talking to the crew and that “it sounds like its quite bad back there… it’s still really bad”.

“The crew is vomiting and, uh, the passengers all around are asking for masks, etc”.

The pilot went onto say that he wanted to get the plane on the ground ‘ASAP’ because of the ‘biohazard’ and that he’d rather not fly for nearly two more hours to Boston with the developing situation onboard.

United initially reported that the flight had to divert due to an ‘urgent customer situation’ but a spokesperson later confirmed that a medical issue necesitated the diversion to Dulles.

“The aircraft is currently undergoing a deep clean and we are working to get customers on their way to Boston soon,” the spokesperson added.

In May, another United 737MAX-8 had to undergo a thorough deepclean after a group of up to 30 passengers fell sick during a four-hour flight from Vancouver, Canada, to Houston.

The sickened passengers were part of a larger group of 75 cruise line passengers who had just finished a trip in British Colombia and were returning to Texas. Those who were taken sick reported flu-like symptoms and nausea.