B747-400
Physiological - Other; Situational Awareness; Confusion
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Other / Unknown; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Illness / Injury
General Maintenance Action
Human Factors; Procedure; Company Policy; Environment - Non Weather Related
I am a deadheading Flight Attendant on board in a passenger seat. There was a sick passenger who threw-up in the Aft Galley (Economy). Working flight attendants cleaned up the bio-hazard/bodily fluids. Cleaners came on board with buckets of liquid (?) cleaning materials and scrubbed the galley down. Flight delayed 3 hours. Sick Passenger was subsequently de-boarded. There is an outbreak of Norovirus in the country of departure at the moment and my concern is that we (passengers and crew) were exposed to a possible viral epidemic. The working crew was asked by the Captain to voice out their concern to him; however the Captain also mentioned that even if the crew refused to work the flight he will still take the plane back to his domestic domicile (maybe with a replacement crew). The deadheading flight attendants were not party to the full conversation between the Captain and his working crew. We have a total of 12 deadheading flight attendants and we were not asked whether we feel comfortable about going on the flight. Did someone at the station follow-up on the condition of the sick passenger to find out exactly what was wrong with him and what exactly were we exposed to? The cleansers walked in and out of the aircraft passing through the left aisle with a plane load of passengers carrying bio-hazard materials and buckets with used liquids and mops that were used to clean the bodily fluids. Is that even up to the standard required for clean-up of bio-hazards? The contaminants were paraded through the left aisle from the aft galley to door 2L by the cleaners. Would appreciate if this matter can be looked into and appropriate measures be taken to have the flight attendants exposed taken care of and set rules be in place for future reference to avoid similar occurrence from taking place.
A wide body aircraft coach passenger became ill and expelled gastrointestinal fluid in the aft galley which was subsequently cleaned up and the passenger reboarded. The flight attendant crew was concerned about exposure to a Norovirus outbreak in the country of departure.