![a large airplane flying in the sky](https://www.paddleyourownkanoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/american-airlines-777.png)
An American Airlines flight from Dallas Fort Worth to Madrid was forced to make an emergency diversion to New York JFK on Wednesday after one of the onboard toilets started to overflow during the main meal service.
This is just the latest in a string of similar incidents at both American Airlines and United Airlines in recent months.
American Airlines flight AA36 departed Dallas Fort Worth at around 6 pm on August 7 for what should have been a routine nine-hour flight to the Spanish capital. But just two and a half hours into the flight, the pilots suddenly decided to divert the Boeing 777 to New York JFK.
It later transpired that the reason for the diversion was down to a faulty lavatory which was overflowing with waste.
Passengers had to deal with the foul onboard incident for another hour until the plane landed in New York where they were then told that the flight would be able to continue to Madrid the same night.
After being stuck in New York for the night, American Airlines was eventually able to return the 23-year-old aircraft back to service the following evening and it eventually left JFK bound for Madrid Barajas Airport at around 8 pm on Thursday evening.
The incident comes less than eight months after flight attendants were forced to use airline blankets to mop up sewage on a New York JFK-bound flight that had just departed Delhi.
In that case, however, rather than diverting the plane, the pilots decided to continue onward to the United States. One horrified passenger on the flight said he and his seatmates were forced to endure the nasty sewage situation for at least ten hours of the 16-hour flight.
Anmol Kaushik said four of the toilets onboard the Boeing 777 had flooded, although a spokesperson for the carrier described the events that unfolded aboard flight AA 293 in January as a “small leak”.
In April, the pilots of a United Airlines flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco decided to divert back to Germany after one of the lavatories started to flood shortly after takeoff.
Even before the flight had departed, the flight attendants told passengers that two of the ten lavatories were out of action but once in the air, the situation became a lot worse when they started to overflow with sewage.
Perhaps its a Boeing thing as the United Airlines incident was also onboard a 777-300 aircraft.
Mateusz Maszczynski honed his skills as an international flight attendant at the most prominent airline in the Middle East and has been flying ever since... most recently for a well known European airline. Matt is passionate about the aviation industry and has become an expert in passenger experience and human-centric stories. Always keeping an ear close to the ground, Matt's industry insights, analysis and news coverage is frequently relied upon by some of the biggest names in journalism.
Wow…and during meal service. I wonder if the people could tell the difference between the food and the effluent?
Don’t blame Boeing , blame the lazy and incompetent FLEET SERVICE CLERK didn’t dump the waste tanks. The FSC should be punish for 90 days no pay.
I agree . What were the Service Crew doing, or should I say not doing? These guys are well paid, so do your job or hit the door! Airlines need to be observant of their employees, from pilots all the way down to cleanup crew.
Everything is going to crap.
American, United and Boeing and others are obsessed with this DEI bullshit. What do you expect
Were these “Overflowing” Toilets incidents all on the Same Airline?
Nobody can Blame any Airplane for “Overflowing” Toilets because all Airplanes get Routine Maintenance all the Time, including Emptying Their Septic Tanks into Sewage Systems at Airports when they’re on the ground!
They better start investigating their maintenance personnel. Sounds like they deliberately are not emptying the tanks so then they overflow on the next flight. How many muslim undercover terrorists that they let in the country do they have doing their aircraft maintenance, that emergency exit doors are blowing off, engine covers blowing off, etc ?
These overflowing ADS turn me off! Looking elsewhere.