I normally don’t write on stories like this, but I just couldn’t help it.  Airplanes are often cramped and the tight spaces usually allow for a variety of odors, some pleasant and some not so pleasant.  Reports came out of Raleigh, North Carolina that a flight crew and passengers had to evacuate a plane over “passed gas,” but apparently, it was something else.

On Monday morning, WBT in Charlotte reported, “All passengers were forced off of an American Airlines plane Sunday afternoon in Raleigh after a person ‘passed gas,’ officials said.”

The incident took place around 4 pm after a plane landed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), where authorities said that the incident was a “medical related call.”

EMS was called to the the crew members, but no one was transported to the hospital.

A RDU operations log shows at 3:34 p.m. the crew members “gave various descriptions of the smell (all indicating an individual had passed gas).”

At 4:18 p.m., a RDU representative told CBS North Carolina the “odor was described as flatulence,” according to the operations log.

American Airlines denied it was the result of someone’s flatulence.

However, later reports indicated that it had nothing to do with flatulence.  rather it was a mechanical issue.

WRAL reports:

Officials at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport said Sunday that some crew members left an American Airlines flight complaining of eye irritation after another crew member passed gas.

On Monday, airport officials retracted their original statement, saying instead that there was a mechanical issue on American Flight 1927 from Charlotte to RDU.

According to an airport spokeswoman, after passengers got off the plane, the crew reported a mechanical issue that in turned caused an odor in the plane.

No passengers were on the plane, and no crew members were injured. The plane was back in service Monday morning.

Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for the airline, released a statement that said in part,  “We did have an aircraft from Charlotte to RDU this afternoon, that landed at 2:19 p.m. ET, and arrived the gate at 2:21 p.m. ET, that is currently out of service for an actual mechanical issue – and odor in the cabin. But It is not due to ‘passed gas’ as mentioned.”

In another statement, the airport confirmed that the flight was never evacuated.

“Plane was not evacuated,” read the statement.  “Medical call for persons affected by an odor came in after plane deplaned normally.”

The flight has since resumed service.

It’s nice to know that someone did not have strong enough flatulence to make the crew sick and force them off the plane.  However, we were not told what the mechanical issue was aboard the plane nor what the remedy of the issue was.