United Airlines Flight Canceled After Passengers Unfortunate Bathroom Incident

Flights are canceled for a selection of causes every day, ranging from inclement climate to upkeep points with the plane.

In the case of one United Airlines flight last summer season, the rationale was a lot more unique–and disgusting. In a current video, an online influencer admitted to getting the flight grounded because she had destroyed the airplane rest room during an in-air bout with norovirus.

Last month, author and actress Meghan Reinertsen produced an eight-minute TikTok video on the one-year anniversary of her flying mishap, admitting all the gnarly particulars from her ordeal on the flight from Newark, N.J. to Indianapolis.

“If that flight cancellation changed the trajectory of your life in a really negative way, I’m so sorry,” Reinertsen said.

What occurred

Reinertsen was flying from Portugal to Newark and then to Indianapolis. According to her video, she woke up about 5 hours into the flight and half-hour from Newark Airport, sensing “a disturbance” in her abdomen.

She made it off the aircraft and through customs before going to board her connecting flight to Indianapolis. While Reinertsen thought she might go to the lavatory and get through the worst of her points, that wasn’t the case.

“I’m full body sweating, I’m crying, my insides are cramping,” Reinertsen said, including that she spent the first half-hour of the flight in “agonizing pain.”

At that level, Reinertsen said she ignored the seatbelt warning and jetted to the lavatory.

“For the next 20 minutes I had more diarrhea than any human should ever have in their life,” she said.

It only obtained worse from there

In addition to her explosive diarrhea, Reinertsen said she also started vomiting, which led to her calling a United crew member for help.

Reinertsen said the crew graciously offered her with luggage and allowed her to keep in the lavatory for the rest of the flight. Once the aircraft landed, she was informed that the plane’s next flight had been canceled because of her.

“They canceled that flight because of me. The hazmat team [had] to come in and clean it, because [they didn’t] know if I’d brought [a disease] back from Portugal,” Reinertsen said. “And I am a biohazard. I am patient zero.”

Eventually, Reinertsen was taken off the aircraft in a wheelchair because she could not stroll. She blamed the sickness on an undercooked hamburger she consumed the evening before flying home.

United confirmed the incident occurred

Thankfully, United Airlines didn’t embarrass Reinertsen publicly, but did admit that the nightmare she skilled occurred.

“Our flight crew is trained to assist customers in situations like this and helped as much as they could during the flight and upon arrival in Indianapolis,” the airline said in a assertion.

United Airlines Flight Canceled After Passenger’s Unfortunate Bathroom Incident first appeared on Men’s Journal on Aug 14, 2025