A United Airlines passenger has explained the cause of the in-flight chaos that led to the cancellation of her flight after she was forced to spend 90 minutes locked in the bathroom
A United Airlines passenger, whose “biohazard diarrhoea” led to flight cancellations, has pointed the finger at an undercooked hamburger for the fiasco.
Actress Meghan Reinertsen, 29, hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, confessed she was holed up in the loo for a whopping 90 minutes during the July 2024 flight from Newark to Indianapolis.
She first spilled the beans about her ordeal on TikTok a month ago, before delving into more detail in a chat with the Daily Mail on Thursday. This revelation comes hot on the heels of an urgent recall issued for six salad products amid food poisoning concerns.
Reinertsen admitted that her cardinal sin was nibbling on a rare patty that left her grappling with severe food poisoning.
“I had eaten part of an undercooked burger hours before I left to get back to Indiana,” she disclosed, reports the Express.
“I only took a couple of bites because I was like, “oof, that’s really undercooked”.”
She purchased the offending burger at the resort where she was working as a nanny for a holidaying family.
“I don’t want to out the resort,” she maintained. “It was a really nice hotel.”
The initial warning bells started ringing as she sauntered through the airport ahead of her final two-hour connecting flight.
“My stomach was rumbling,” she shared with the Daily Mail. “I was like, “this is… different”.”
“But it really wasn’t until I got on the second flight that the pain kicked in. I was like, “this is not good”.”
In her TikTok clip detailing the ordeal, she revealed that just 30 minutes after takeoff she was soaked in perspiration, weeping and writhing in agony.
Terrified she might suffer the same fate as the notorious Delta traveller who had an accident mid-flight, Reinertsen managed to reach the loo just in the nick of time.
“For the next 20 minutes I had more diarrhea than any human should ever have in their life,” she explained, revealing that she subsequently began being sick as well.
In a state of panic within the cramped, suffocating cubicle, she called out for assistance from cabin crew, who provided her with bags.
The staff permitted her to remain in the lavatory for the duration of the journey, obtaining special authorisation from the captain so she could stay put during landing.
Looking back on the episode, Meghan recalled: “A flight attendant comes over and says, ‘Everybody’s off the plane now, go ahead and take your time and come out when you can, the next flight has been cancelled.’ In the moment, I’m not thinking it is because of me.”
She was subsequently told by the flight attendant that a hazmat crew would be dispatched to clear up her mess.
“Got it, so you cancelled that flight because of me…because you don’t know if I brought something back from Portugal. And I am a biohazard. I am patient zero.”
Meghan went public with her story on TikTok last month. She disclosed that the incident took place in July 2024 but it was so humiliating that she has found travelling difficult ever since.
The footage has clocked up more than 20 million views on Meghan’s TikTok profile.
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