A Delta Air Lines passenger from Orlando to Los Angeles shared that a man in 16E “started puking his guts out.” His barefoot companion in 16D talked openly about it being adenovirus and that their whole family had it he prior week. They knew he was contagious and flew anyway!
She says the sick passenger vomited for about 45 minutes while staying in his seat and wouldn’t go to the lavatory. She also complained his companion’s bare feet were “all over [her] space.”
He had thrown up “all over the seat” and the next flight was waiting to board as they left. it looked like there were people waiting to board—questioning whether the aircraft could be sanitized adequately and why the crew let it go on for 30–45 minutes.
He literally sat here puking for 45 min, wouldn’t go to the bathroom, his friends gross bare feet all over my space. I cannnnnnot get sick from this pic.twitter.com/7NPDBz4DAx
— shelby young (@shelby_young) February 23, 2026
Persistent vomiting onboard is actually CDC-reportable. And vomit is potentially infectious. Separately, Delta should enforce its Contract of Carriage and require shoes!
Ideally the passenger would be separated from others on board. Crew should have the cockpit notify operations that cleaners will need to do more than routine refresh of the cabin before the next flight, seat cushions may need to be changed, and staff will need PPE.
Unfortunately, airline policies encourage passengers to fly sick. It’s costly to change your plans, and a doctor’s note won’t even help you. It’s also broadly cultural: we expect people to ‘tough it out’ when sick. Work colleagues don’t want us to ‘let them down’.
U.S. airlines have generally eliminated change fees, except on basic economy fares. But passengers on basic economy fares tend to be the most price-sensitive, so they’re the ones most likely to fly given the cost of a change.
If a basic economy passenger is sick, and doesn’t want to expose other passengers and crew to their germs, they’re stuck taking a financial loss. We’re pushing a strong incentive for passengers to sprad disease on planes. And even if planes themselves have good airflow and filtration, gate areas and security checkpoints often do not. Delta has a communicable diseases refund policy but respiratory viruses don’t seem likely to meet the bar here most of the time.
Pandemic-era enhanced cleaning measures should have stayed around post-pandemic. There was a lot of cleanliness theater during Covid-19 but disinfecting is highly protective against many viruses.
As a passenger I don’t want to be on a plane with sick passengers and I don’t want to be on a plane with sick crew. I’ve written about American’s efforts to make flight attendants work sick and similar issues at United. That doesn’t make me want to fly them more.
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