Puking hell at 38,000ft: 70 passengers fall ill with vomiting bug during flight from Mauritius to Frankfurt

Passengers vomited at an altitude of 10,000 meters on Thursday when 70 people became ill with an emetic virus halfway through their flight.

Condor airline Flight DE2315 was en route from Mauritius to Frankfurt when it became clear that many passengers on board were affected by the bug.

The plane landed in the German city around 5:33 p.m., where it was greeted by a large contingent of emergency services.

The crew had called ahead to alert officials on the scene of the developing emergency.

It was found that 70 of the 290 passengers on board had suddenly reported symptoms, including nausea and vomiting.

A spokesperson for the German airline confirmed the incident to the country Image tabloid, adding that the crew was not affected by the disease.

‘She [the pilot/crew] is also educated and trained for these types of special situations,” the statement to the newspaper said.

‘After careful examination of the overall situation, the flight continued. The plane landed safely in Frankfurt, where medical professionals were available to care for the affected guests.”

However, the airline did not confirm the cause of the sudden illness, but noted that the food on board was said to have been prepared in Mauritius.

“Condor has already started an investigation into the matter to determine the cause and deduce possible measures from this,” the spokeswoman said.

‘Condor works closely with all responsible partners and authorities. There are currently no results available.

“We generally do not engage in speculation about the cause, for example about individual onboard menus prepared in Mauritius,” the statement said.

While it’s not uncommon for people to get sick while flying, it seems less common for multiple passengers — not to mention 70 — to get sick at the same time.

The most extreme case occurred in 1975 when a massive outbreak of food poisoning wreaked havoc on a Japan Airlines flight flying from Anchorage, Alaska, to Paris, forcing the plane to land in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Of the 344 people on board, 197 people became ill with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal cramps after consuming an in-flight meal contaminated with staphylococcus – the largest food poisoning incident on board a commercial airliner.

Although there were no fatalities, 44 of the passengers were so seriously ill that they had to be hospitalized and 30 were in critical condition.

The majority of the passengers were Japanese salespeople working for Coca-Cola, along with their families, who had won a trip to Paris.

Pictured: Passengers are seen at Frankfurt Airport in February (archive photo)

Since none of the doctors in Denmark spoke Japanese and only a few passengers spoke Danish or English, Japanese-speaking staff from the Copenhagen restaurants were called to the hospital to assist as interpreters.

An investigation into the incident revealed that the staph contamination was traced to a cook who prepared the meal in Anchorage.

They were found to have lesions on one of their hands that were infected with the bacteria.

Although all victims officially survived the incident, Japan Air Lines catering manager, 52-year-old Kenji Kuwabara, committed suicide when he learned that the food poisoning outbreak had been caused by one of his cooks.