A couple of days ago, I wrote about how a long haul Air India flight had to divert over clogged toilets. By all accounts, it sounds like the carrier’s handling of this situation was not impressive. The airline has now provided some details of how exactly this happened, and why the decision was made to return all the way to Chicago.
This is only one of two Air India flights between the United States and India to have returned to its origin over the past week, as a Mumbai to New York flight also returned to its origin over a security threat.
Air India 777 returns to Chicago over clogged toilets
This incident happened on March 5, 2025, and involves Air India flight AI126, scheduled to operate from Chicago (ORD) to Delhi (DEL). The flight was operated by a 15-year-old Boeing 777-300ER with the registration code VT-ALQ.
The flight took off from O’Hare Airport on schedule, at 11:24AM, and began its roughly 14-hour journey to India. The jet flew out over Canada, the Labrador Sea, and Greenland, and then continued its Atlantic crossing. However, over four hours after departure, the jet made a 180-degree turn, and headed back toward Chicago.
That was quite a long journey, and the plane ended up landing there at 9:08PM, after a flight time of 9hr44min. That’s right, the plane flew for nearly 10 hours, only to end up back where it started. So, what was the reason the plane returned to its origin? By the time the plane was out over the Atlantic, a majority of the toilets were reportedly clogged.
The airline has now provided some more details, after an investigation into the incident has been performed. Specifically, ground staff in Chicago found that polythene bags, rags, and clothes, had been flushed down the lavatories, and were stuck in the plumbing. What is wrong with people?!?
So, why was the decision made to return to the origin, especially since it required roughly five hours of backtracking. Why didn’t the plane instead divert to a closer airport on the way to India, rather than returning to an outstation?
The airline claims that “due to restrictions on night operations at most of the European airports, it was decided to divert back to Chicago,” and that this “was taken entirely in the interest of passenger comfort and safety.” Now, I’m a little skeptical of that claim, or at a minimum, it’s not complete. Yes, of course airports like Heathrow have a curfew, but there are also plenty of airlines that don’t have curfews.
I suspect the bigger concern was that if a diversion happened the crew might time out, and then passengers would be stranded at a smaller station for the airline. The logistics of that would obviously be complicated, especially with visa requirements.
For what it’s worth, the aircraft ended up remaining on the ground in Chicago until 2PM on March 7, so it took nearly two days until the plane could reenter service.
Air India seems to have handled this situation poorly
Okay, in fairness, it’s not Air India’s fault that passengers can’t behave, and were throwing things down the toilet. How ridiculous.
However, an OMAAT reader’s cousin was on this flight, and shares that the handling by the airline wasn’t so great. According to a statement by the airline, “all passengers were provided immediate assistance, including hotel accommodation and alternative flight options to continue their journey to Delhi.”
But passengers have a different version of events. When the plane landed back in Chicago, there were reportedly only two Air India employees to meet the plane, which had roughly 300 passengers. Passengers were given a piece of paper (which I was sent a picture of), informing them to call customer service for rebooking options.
However, it was clear that customer service representatives hadn’t been briefed on what had happened, so they had no alternatives to offer. I can’t vouch for this, but the traveler claims that the situation was so bad that Delta employees volunteered to help the two Air India staff out of empathy, given the number of stranded passengers.
As Air India tries to reinvent itself, it sure seems like providing basic levels of customer service is still more of a struggle than it should be.
Bottom line
Air India passengers traveling from Chicago to Delhi were in for an unpleasant journey, as the plane ended up returning to its origin after nearly 10 hours due to clogged toilets. Unfortunately the reasons the toilets were clogged was because passengers reportedly threw articles of clothing (among other things) down them. Sometimes things go wrong, though it sounds like Air India didn’t do a great job handling this situation.
What do you make of this Air India toilet diversion?
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