Narrative:

Shortly before level off we began receiving complaints of airsick passengers; and flight attendants (flight attendant) were experiencing either airsickness or vertigo symptoms; although we were primarily in shallow; wings-level climbs up to that point. The flight attendants also noted reduced airflow but no odors from the air conditioning system. The aircraft had a deferred right recirculation fan but there were no indications that the pack was not operating in high flow as it should be. The left recirculation fan and pack were normal. We were operating pressurization by the auto 2 system and had noticed minor ears-popping sensations on climb out; but with the rate; cabin altitude and cabin differential showing normal indications on level off. We gradually reduced the pack output temp to enhance passenger comfort; and discussed options. To complicate decision-making; we could not establish communication with dispatch or [maintenance] via satcom. When we had 4 of 8 fas complaining of airsickness; we made the decision to divert after coordination with dispatch. ZZZ has significant maintenance capability; the best option to accommodate our passengers; and we were burning down to decrease our overweight landing anyway. (While at FL310 and still west; we coordinated with ATC to dumped 20k fuel to empty the center tank. This would result in us landing at 340k; overweight by 20k.). ATC provided priority vectors and we landed in VMC conditions to ZZZ; using 30 flaps and a calculated landing distance well below the runway length. We used light braking to avoid stressing the system and still cleared the runway with 3000' remaining. The fire departure followed us to parking and brake temps never exceeded 1. We had coordinated to have our sick passengers met at the stairs; and then deplaned remaining passengers and crew.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B-767 flight crew reported a diversion due to flight attendants and passengers becoming ill in flight.

Narrative: Shortly before level off we began receiving complaints of airsick passengers; and Flight Attendants (FA) were experiencing either airsickness or vertigo symptoms; although we were primarily in shallow; wings-level climbs up to that point. The flight attendants also noted reduced airflow but no odors from the air conditioning system. The aircraft had a deferred right recirculation fan but there were no indications that the pack was not operating in high flow as it should be. The left recirculation fan and pack were normal. We were operating pressurization by the Auto 2 system and had noticed minor ears-popping sensations on climb out; but with the rate; cabin altitude and cabin differential showing normal indications on level off. We gradually reduced the pack output temp to enhance passenger comfort; and discussed options. To complicate decision-making; we could not establish communication with dispatch or [maintenance] via SATCOM. When we had 4 of 8 FAs complaining of airsickness; we made the decision to divert after coordination with dispatch. ZZZ has significant maintenance capability; the best option to accommodate our passengers; and we were burning down to decrease our overweight landing anyway. (While at FL310 and still west; we coordinated with ATC to dumped 20k fuel to empty the center tank. This would result in us landing at 340k; overweight by 20k.). ATC provided priority vectors and we landed in VMC conditions to ZZZ; using 30 flaps and a calculated landing distance well below the runway length. We used light braking to avoid stressing the system and still cleared the runway with 3000' remaining. The fire departure followed us to parking and brake temps never exceeded 1. We had coordinated to have our sick passengers met at the stairs; and then deplaned remaining passengers and crew.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.