United Airlines flight diverted after ‘biohazard’ reported on plane

A United Airlines flight from Houston to Boston diverted to Northern Virginia on Sunday after “after a customer experienced a medical issue,” according to United.

The airline did not disclose the nature of the illness on flight 2477, but a radio traffic recording shared by flight tracking company RadarBox suggests there may have been some sort of biohazard on board.

“It’s quite bad back there. It’s still really bad. The crew is vomiting and passengers all around are asking for masks, etc.” says a voice on the recording, presumably from the flight crew. RadarBox credited the recording to @Thenewarea51, which in turn credited the audio to Bill B. on X, formerly Twitter. “Especially this kind of being a biohazard, I think we need to probably get this plane on the ground ASAP.”

There were 155 passengers and six crew members on board, and none required medical assistance upon arrival at Washington Dulles International Airport, according to United.

United said the Boeing 737-800 got a “deep clean” and departed with passengers and crew at 5:17 p.m. ET.

The airline’s flight tracker shows the flight got to Boston more than five hours late.