Airplane toilets can clog for a variety of reasons. Sometimes one lavatory will be taken out of service, sometimes multiple lavatories will have issues, and sometimes this even leads to diversions. However, a recent Philippine Airlines flight sounds absolutely disastrous, with all toilets malfunctioning, and the crew taking “matter(s)” into their own hands (literally).
All Philippine Airlines 777 lavatories break on long haul flight
InsiderPH has the story of an incident that reportedly occurred on Philippine Airlines flight PR113 last week, from Los Angeles (LAX) to Manila (MNL). The roughly 15-hour flight was operated by a Boeing 777-300ER.
At some point while over the Pacific, all 11 lavatories on the aircraft began to malfunction, became clogged, and would no longer flush. At that point the flight was far from any land, with the closest practical diversion point, Guam (GUM), still being hours away. Ultimately, the captain and operations team reportedly decided to continue the flight, which was a disaster for the crew, as you’d expect.
Crew members were reportedly instructed by the supervisor to manually scoop human waste out of the toilets, and dispose of it in the adjacent sinks, to avoid the toilets overflowing, and so that they could continue to be used.
While airlines have procedures in place for just about any scenario, no airline protocols support this kind of a process, rather than diverting the aircraft. Obviously having flight attendant scoop waste out of the toilet raises serious concerns about sanitation, safety, and more.
Below is a video that was reportedly taken on the flight, and viewer discretion is advised!
Flight attendants are angry about how this played out
Interestingly, the outrage here doesn’t seem to be from passengers, but instead, from the union representing flight attendants, which views this as an operational and leadership meltdown. According to the report:
- The crew was angry that the flight wasn’t diverted, as seemingly profits and punctuality were valued over the wellbeing of passengers and crew
- The crew blames the captain for his decision not to divert, and the supervisor for allowing the situation to happen without it being escalated
- Apparently no further investigation was performed into the incident after the fact by management, which is concerning to the crew, and makes them think it’s more likely that this will be repeated
Bottom line
While it’s not uncommon for some lavatories on an aircraft to malfunction, a Philippine Airlines Boeing 777 reportedly had all lavatories malfunction on a recent flight while over the Pacific. The decision was made not to divert, and as a result, the crew ended up shoveling human waste out of the toilets, to avoid them from overflowing.
This has to be one of the worst aircraft lavatory stories I’ve heard of, and I feel horribly for the crew (well, and passengers).
What do you make of this Philippine Airlines lavatory situation?
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