Flight Forced to Make Emergency Landing Because of Man's 'Unbearable Stench'

Planes are forced to land for all kinds of reasons -- bathroom breaks, engine failure, broken windows -- but rarely is it because a passenger simply smells bad. But that was exactly the case last Tuesday on a Transavia Airlines flight from Las Palmas to Amsterdam.

The smell was reportedly bad enough that passengers became "so violently ill that they vomited or fainted in their seats," according to The Points Guy, citing a report from the Belgian news site VRT. In an attempt to contain the situation, flight attendants quarantined the man in a bathroom in the back of the plane, and the smell prevented in-flight food and drink from being served. 

Finally, the decision was made to make an emergency landing in Faro, Portugal, a little under two hours from their point of departure. Once they landed, the man was escorted from the plane and received by a medical team.

“The smell made me think that the man hadn’t washed for weeks,” a passenger explained to VRT. “Eventually we landed in Amsterdam with almost three hours delay. Nobody could stand the stench. Everyone tried to cover his nose.”

In a bizarre coincidence, a Transavia flight between Dubai and Amsterdam made an emergency landing in Vienna  back in February when a fight broke out because a passenger wouldn't stop farting. So far there's no reason to believe there's any connection between the incidents. 

h/t The Points Guy

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James Chrisman is a News Writer at Thrillist. Send news tips to news@thrillist.com and follow him on Twitter @james_chrisman2.