Fri Aug 02, 2013 11:59 am
First-time poster here - this topic prompted me to become a member.
I work as a translator and recently had to translate the protocol for a well-known European airline for the occurrence of such an incident, including the actions the flight crew should take, and announcements that should be made to passengers.
Although I am severely emetaphobic like a few others here, it was such an interesting text to work on, despite having to stave off a panic attack!
For this airline, no toilets were reserved for the unwell passengers, rather one lavatory was reserved for crew use only, obviously to mitigate the chances of crew infection. Also, no food was to be served to passengers in such an event, with the galleys restricted to passengers. It was not clear whether the event would result in diversion (I guess it depends on the severity of the incident), but it was interesting to see the multitude of different scenarios that flight crew have to prepare for.
Of course, these rules probably vary from airline to airline, but I hope the above is of some interest.