70 passengers on an 11-hour flight from a tropical island paradise were hit by vomiting and nausea in midair
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- A Condor Airlines flight from Mauritius to Frankfurt was met by emergency services due to mass illness.
- 70 of the 290 passengers reported symptoms like vomiting and nausea, Bild reported.
- Condor Airlines has initiated an investigation into the cause of the incident.
A flight to Germany had to be met by emergency services after dozens of passengers started vomiting, the German outlet Bild reported.
The Condor Airlines A330 was flying from Mauritius to Frankfurt last Thursday — a journey that takes more than 11 hours.
Bild reported that 70 of the 290 passengers on board reported symptoms like vomiting and nausea.
A Condor spokesperson told the newspaper that the crew was unaffected. They added that medical professionals were available to care for the passengers upon landing.
Condor has started an investigation into the cause of the incident.
"We generally do not participate in speculation about the cause, for example about individual menus on board that were prepared in Mauritius," the spokesperson told Bild.
Condor did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Such cases of mass illness can be caused by turbulence or bad food, as portrayed in the 1980 comedy "Airplane!" Incidents with dozens of people feeling nauseous may also have a psychological cause.
Last year, a Southwest flight had to abort its landing after bad weather caused turbulence so severe that several passengers began throwing up.
But the most infamous airline-vomiting incident occurred on a 1975 Japan Air Lines flight. 197 passengers fell ill during the flight, 144 of whom were taken to the hospital. It was later found that some of the meals had been contaminated by Staphylococcus bacteria, causing food poisoning.