Plane forced to turn around after passenger commits huge travel no-no

A plane was forced to return to the airport in Los Angeles after a passenger made an enormous faux pas.

When it comes to travelling by plane, the whole experience is already unpleasant enough without having to contend with the behaviour of inconsiderate passengers.

There you are, shoved into a pressurised metal tube filled with sterile air, recycling everyone's burps and farts for several hours as you rocket through the sky.

Then there's the existential terror as the plane approaches the runway, with the prayers of 'please God let it fly, please...' echoing out - and that's just the pilot.

But one passenger's actions on a flight to Salt Lake City have made every argument over seat reclining etiquette and parents asking people to give up their reserved seat so their toddler can sit by the window appear as mere petty squabbles in comparison.

It was so bad that the entire flight had to return to the airport.

The plane had to turn around again (Witthaya Prasongsin/Getty)

Everyone who has flown knows about the restrictions on what you can and can't take onto a plane.

Say goodbye to your fancy shampoo, likewise your water bottle, as well as the box containing a carton of bleach and a lighter.

Maybe that last one is probably a good idea to confiscate, but shockingly one passenger managed to take something on board which stunk out the whole plane.

The precise details of the foul-smelling item they brought on have not been shared, with the offending object being simply described as 'spoiled food'.

I'll let your imagination take care of the rest with that - whether it was a jar of out of date pickled eggs, a three-day-old tuna salad that had been left on a radiator, or just some plain old maggoty chicken.

Whatever it was, the crew decided the smell was so bad that it warranted the whole plane returning to the airport.

This, but filled with gross food smell (Alexander Spatari/Getty)

A Delta spokesperson told People: “As nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and people, our crew followed standard procedures to safely return to Los Angeles after an unpleasant odor was detected onboard.”

They added that the food was not related to any food that was being supplied by the airline.

Passengers were able to safely leave the plane, and were put onto another flight, with the airline apologising for the delay.

It could have been worse.

There are plenty of deliberately stinky foods out there, including the eye-watering Swedish delicacy Surströmming - canned fermented herrings which causes the tin lid to bow out with the pressure of the gas, and which reportedly smell like raw sewage.