Delta flight from Atlanta to Denver diverted due to ill passengers

A Delta flight from Atlanta to Denver had to make an unscheduled landing in Tulsa, Oklahoma, today after numerous passengers reported feeling sick, the airline said.

The crew of Delta Flight 1817 made the decision to divert to Tulsa because of the customers feeling ill, Delta said in a statement this afternoon.

As of this evening, 100 people had been assessed and nine reported having the same symptoms, though officials did not explain what those symptoms were.

One passenger from the flight was hospitalized, but for an unrelated medical emergency, a Delta supervisor on the scene said. [Source]

AirLiveAlert

This is Delta Flight flight #DK1817. Other reports circulating about carbon monoxide poisoning, but from what I can tell, no definitive answers yet.

There's something called a toxic air event that appears to be more common than we are told. This site here keeps a data base of them: Toxic Free Airlines. A blurb from their site:

In spite of the compelling evidence of a massive health and safety scandal the airline industry fails even to adequately acknowledge the problem, let alone to take action to protect crews and the travelling public. They know that fully admitting the scale of the problem could damage their business and leave them liable to huge compensation claims.

Also, a lot of times in these cases, you hear people saying it's hysteria...as in when one person gets sick others follow suit. Not sure that's the case here as they

Other possibilities may be contaminated food or water at the terminal or on the plane (though it wasn't airborne all that long.

Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA), HAZMAT and fire crews were sent to the airport to handle the situation. All emergency units are treating the situation as a medical issue at this time. In particular, EMSA medical services set 2 units on scene to take care of affected passengers.

After reports of sickness had been received among some passengers, the rest of people on board were assessed to verify their health status. The 10-15 sick passengers showed symptoms of general illness and nausea. They were immediately sent to health services set at the Tulsa International Airport. [Source]

Last report I could find said the sick passesngers were still on the plane, but that may have been up to two hours ago. Hope this is nothing serious.

Just keeping an eye on this.

ETA: Just as an aside, while I was looking for information about this story, I also found this: Delta flight mistakenly lands at air force base in South Dakota.

Just a little 10-mile mistake. Not a great day for Delta. The wrong airport thing seems to be the bigger story at the moment than the sick-people thing. Hmmm....

Zombies.

Bleed air leak. It's quite commonbecause of the sheer number of aircraft flying, almost impossible to fix or track down, and intermittent as hell.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Oooh. Bleed Air Leek

Hadn't seen that one.

Heck, with the air recirculating on planes the way it does, it's a wonder this isn't an almost daily occurrence. I avoid flying at all costs these days because I usually come off a flight feeling ill.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

They can make you sick, and depending on where it is discharge oil and hydraulic fluid residue into the cabin, as well as lead to cabin smoke reports. They're usually more a pain in the ass than anything, but that's what causes most of the toxic air reports.

a reply to: Zaphod58

The people had to have been pretty seriously ill though for them to have made an emergency landing, no? That's not a trivial thing from what I understand.

ETA: There was just a live update on Tulsa news. They spoke to a woman on the flight who said those not feeling symptoms were told to leave all belongings and go to the terminal, which they are not allowed to leave. The sick passengers remained on the plane, aside from I guess the one hospitalized fon "non-related" symptoms.

All passengers in the terminal were checked by medical personel. They are apparently still there waiting, for up to six hours now.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

The general feeling is it's better to be safe than sorry. If you have 10-15 passengers on a plane that small reporting the same symptoms then there's a good chance it's something on the aircraft. That means it could potentially affect the crew, so better to be safe and get on the ground and get assessed.

Glad Zaphod chimed in with an answer as to what this was. I just wanted to say mass hysteria can definitely be intense. I was at a movie theatre where the power went out once. The staff was in there with huge flahlights almost immediately to escort the patrons out.

Nonetheless, the fear or sudden momentary blackout made a couple people get sick. Next thing you know everybody was pushing and shoving while dozens and dozens of people were throwing up absolutely everywhere. It was complete panic. The theater staff even had this white powder stuff that they were sprinkling on the puke on the ground and walls that was almost luminescent and glowed to keep other people from slipping on it or touching it.

Almost like it was standard emergency protocol for a blackout in a movie theater and they were prepared lol.

It was discusting. Ill always remember that.

originally posted by: lightedhype
Glad Zaphod chimed in...

I mentioned both toxic air and mass hysteria in my OP. Just not the "bleed air leaks." Thank you very much.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

Bleed air leaks happen all the time, but they don't often happen in ways that can contaminate the cabin with bad things.

Shuttle normally has 1 out of 50 aircraft with some kind of bleed leak be it engine or apu. Most of the leaks are in places that just cause a pressure loss to one of the packs. We defer the pack and fix it as soon as we can but never heard of an issue with pax getting sick.

a reply to: Pyle

Interesting.

I'm a little frustrated that there aren't any updates, but I guess Saturday are slow news days.

Plus this probably isn't something Delta or other airlines would want getting out if it's on their end.

The Toxic Free Airlines site (in OP) makes it sound like this sort happens quite frequently (maybe not necessarily from the bleed air thing), but we don't hear about it a lot.

The problem of contaminated air exposures in aircraft has been known about for over 30 years and remained inadequately addressed, despite many Government and industry statements recognising the problem is in fact very real. This included the 2005 pilot union (BALPA) conference in London and the Australian Senate Inquiry of 2000, which acknowledged that crews and passengers exposed to aircraft air contamination were indeed becoming ill.

it's really bad when the wrong oil that contains phosphers is used......

that turned an A-380 back to London once....twas both pilots ...mainly the right seater was falling out bad within 12 minutes...

a reply to: Pyle

I have many times. A bleed air leak combined with a minor oil leak and you can get oil fumes into the cabin. Bleed air leaks are the cause of toxic air syndrome. Contaminants from other systems leak into into the bleed air system and get into the cabin. Some people are more susceptible than others and are affected faster.

Flight crews have become permanently disabled because of problems with bleed air.

m.aol.com...

a reply to: ~Lucidity

You won't see any updates because they may not find anything or they may not tear into the system until the next maintenance cycle if there's no evidence of a leak.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Didn't mean for that to come off as they don't cause issues just that its rare when it makes people sick.

Sounds like the verdict was "elevated carbon monoxide levels," mainly in people at the back of the plane, including at least one flight attendant. Plane released to Delta maintenance. Everyone's fine now after getting fresh air and oxygen.