VC10man,
I'm really sorry your wife and friend experienced a small delay on this Flybe flight. I'm sure you can appreciate it's out of Flybe's control if one of our passengers is sick on the inbound flight though. I can promise you the crew will have tried their best to get the situation addressed ASAP once they were on the ground. I'm sure you would of been even more miffed if your wife had boarded the plane to find the sick still there next to her!
I suspect there was an issue/ delay with the contractor who have all the correct equipment to deal with the offending vomit. Who knows they may have been busy dealing with other puddles of sick on other aircraft/airlines if there was a lot of turbulence that day.
I hope that helps you understand the situation.