Clogged toilets force Delhi-bound AI flight to land in Germany
An Air India flight from Toronto to Delhi was diverted midway to Frankfurt in Germany after several lavatories in the aircraft were clogged with litter and subsequently became unusable, airline sources said on Tuesday.
Flight AI188, operated with a Boeing 777-300ER, had to land in Frankfurt on May 2 due to what the airline officially described as a “technical issue.” However, internal sources attributed the diversion to blocked lavatories that rendered a number of them inoperative during the ultra-long-haul journey.
“The aircraft resumed its journey to Delhi after a stopover of a few hours. We would like to reiterate that at Air India, the safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew remain top priority," an airline spokesperson said.
This is the second such incident in the past 50 days. Earlier on March 5, a Delhi-bound Air India aircraft, which took off from Chicago, was forced to return to its source station allegedly due to the same reason.
The flight, which took off from Chicago on March 5, was soaring over Greenland when 11 out of its 12 toilets became inoperative, leaving nearly 300 passengers with just a single functional lavatory. To make matters worse, the only working restroom was in the business class section, sparking chaos and frustration among travelers.
The mid-air sanitation disaster left passengers furious, adding to the growing list of service failures plaguing the airline. A purported video of the March 5 incident had also gone viral on social media.
According to sources, some of the airline’s wide-body aircraft flying on US and Canada routes are older models, with aging plumbing systems vulnerable to blockages. Sources explained that when a waste tank becomes clogged, it can disable up to half of the lavatories on the aircraft, which typically have two waste tanks.
Officials aware of the issue stated that the airlines have in the past multiple times found objects such as blankets, innerwear, and diapers, among other waste, which had been flushed down the toilets. “We take this opportunity to urge passengers to use lavatories only for the purposes that they are meant for,” he added.
India