- An Air India flight returned to Chicago in a nine-hour ordeal for passengers last week.
- The airline said bags, rags, and clothes had been flushed down toilets and got stuck in the plumbing.
- The Boeing 777 couldn’t land in Europe due to night restrictions at most airports.
Air India passengers were left with a nine-hour flight to nowhere after most of the plane’s bathrooms stopped working.
Data from Flightradar24 shows that last Wednesday’s flight from Chicago to New Delhi U-turned over the Atlantic Ocean — about four hours into the 14-hour journey.
“About an hour and forty-five minutes into the flight, the crew reported some of the lavatories in business and economy class to be unserviceable,” an Air India spokesperson said in a statement.
“Subsequently, eight of the 12 lavatories in the aircraft became unserviceable, causing discomfort to all on board,” they added.
Images on social media appeared to show that clothes had clogged pipes on the plane.
The airline spokesperson said that its investigation found “polythene bags, rags, and clothes that had been flushed down and stuck in the plumbing.”
The Boeing 777 landed back in Chicago around 9 p.m. local time, per Flightradar24.
So-called flights to nowhere are more common when an airline departs from one of its hub airports, where it’s easier to make repair and re-route passengers.
Air India diverted Flight 126 back to the US due to restrictions on night operations at most European airports, the airline spokesperson said.
The decision to return to Chicago “was taken entirely in the interest of passenger comfort and safety,” they added.
Upon arrival, passengers were given hotel accommodation and alternative flight options to New Delhi.
It’s not the first time a flight has turned around due to plumbing problems.
Eight of the nine bathrooms stopped working on a KLM flight from Amsterdam to Los Angeles in February 2024. The Boeing 787 U-turned over the Atlantic Ocean and returned to the Netherlands.
Air India has previously found blankets, diapers, and other waste flushed down the toilets on other flights.
“We take this opportunity to urge passengers to use lavatories only for the purposes that they are meant for,” the statement said.
