She said she saw the attendant become ill and heard her say “I feel like somebody slipped me kryptonite” before she grabbed another attendant to return to the front of the aircraft.

“At the same moment, about six people around me began to feel ill,” Gilles said just after 7:30 p.m.

“Some put their heads down. Others asked for bags to throw up in. And then I noticed that a few rows in front of me, a couple of people were having problems as well.”

Staff on the plane asked for medical professionals on board to help the sick passengers and announced soon after that the plane would divert to Tulsa, she said.

Gilles said she thought the passengers would be “lucky” to depart from Tulsa by Saturday night.

As of Saturday night, Delta.com said Flight 9961 — also an MD-90 aircraft — would arrive in Tulsa from Minneapolis around 9:40 p.m. to transport the passengers to Denver.

The Flight 1817 information showed the replacement plane would land in Denver at 10:44 p.m. local time, nearly 7½ hours after its scheduled arrival.

Samantha Vicent 918-581-8321 samantha.vicent@tulsaworld.com

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