A plane filled with UK tourists returning home was forced to divert mid-journey after a bathroom malfunction.
Ryanair flight FR1667 must have reached Bristol around 5 pm yesterday afternoon after departing from Fuerteventura at lunchtime.
However it diverted to the neighbouring Canary Island of Lanzarote shortly into its 3.5-hour journey after the toilets stopped working, in line with local air traffic controllers.
It was not immediately clear what precisely the problem, which up to now has led to passengers being forced to make use of bottles to alleviate themselves, had been.
The plane touched down in Lanzarote just before 3 pm yesterday after an hour and a half within the air.
Nobody from the low-cost airline could possibly be reached last night or early this morning to elucidate exactly what had happened and say whether passengers had been capable of proceed to their intended destination or needed to spend the night in Lanzarote.
In 2024, a long-haul flight was forced to show back mid-journey after considered one of the Boeing plane’s toilets overflowed.
The United Airlines flight from Frankfurt, Germany, was a few hours into its journey to San Francisco, California, when the pilot decided to U-turn.
Contents from the bathroom’s waste tank were pushed back up into the rest room, passengers told German outlet Bild.
A foul smell was said to have quickly filled the remainder of the cabin on the Boeing 777.
The crew reportedly called technicians from the plane, but they were unable to search out an answer that might allow them to proceed the flight.
The reason behind the fault was not immediately clear, with United Airlines describing it as ‘a maintenance issue’.
How do aeroplane toilets work, and the way do they break?
Toilets on aircraft depend on strong suction from the flush. A valve opens when the chain is pulled, sucking the entire waste from the bathroom bowl.
The waste is then coated with Teflon, which can be used on non-stick pans, to stop it from sticking inside the pipes.
The waste is moved through the pipes, identical to your private home toilet system, but on this case, it’s stored in tanks on board the aeroplane versus entering the sewage system.
When the plane lands, a sewage vehicle attaches a vacuum hose to the plane’s waste tanks. When it’s all emptied, the plane can prepare for its next flight.
Sometimes, pressure issues mean the toilets aren’t working and draining the waste properly. Regulations often stipulate that at the least one toilet must be working for flights under two hours long.
For long-haul flights, a broken toilet often grounds the plane, as passengers will need to have access to a bathroom during long flights.
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