No functioning loo in Delhi-Chicago Air India flight creates trouble for over 300 passengers

A Chicago-bound  Air India flight took off from Delhi Airport on Saturday with only eight out of twelve toilets functioning. These eight toilets were also out of order shortly and passengers had no option but to wait for the aircraft to land, according to media reports. 

Over 340 people, including 324 adults and seven infants as passengers were on board in the Air India Delhi-Chicago Boeing 777 aircraft, The Times of India reported. 

During the 16-hour-long-journey, passengers were served a meal, alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. They queued up in front of the toilets which were soon closed. As the passengers remained seated with both their stomach and bladder full, the situation became so bad that the  staff was seriously considering diverting the flight to Toronto. 

However, the plan could not materialise and the aircraft continued towards its destination. 

"The Boeing 777-300 (VT-ALJ) flew into Delhi from Hyderabad on Friday night. Four of its 12 toilets were clogged and we tried to clear them by nitrogen flushing but could not do so. Since the aircraft was booked to take  passengers to Chicago from Delhi and no alternate aircraft could be arranged at such a short notice, it was felt that the eight serviceable toilets will be enough for the journey and the plane was released under minimum equipment list (meaning with an issue that can be tackled later)," a senior AI official was quoted as saying by TOI. 

This incident is not the first in recent times which raises doubts over its maintenance. A few days ago, Bangalore-bound domestic Air India flight from Delhi had to make an emergency landing at Hyderabad due to the stink coming out of one of the front lavatories. 

Last August, Air India's Newark-Mumbai nonstop flight with over 300 people on board had to make an unschedule stop at Istanbul as none of the toilets were flushing. And before that, an Australia-Delhi flight had to be grounded in Sydney due to all toilets getting clogged.
 

As the report started doing rounds, social media users slammed Air India. Twitteratis blamed the staff and demanded strong action against them. 

@airindiain : you must feel ashamed to brand yourselves as a"National Carrier" - becoming a disgrace. https://t.co/BgcuGXDAuc