Clogged, unusable toilets in flights regularly delays Air India flights and bleeds the airline, reported The Times of India on Wednesday. After a 16-hour international AI flight from Delhi to Chicago made headlines for not having a single functioning toilet for almost 340 passengers earlier this week, the government carrier has claimed that lack of toilet hygiene is a big problem for them.
Unnamed sources from AI told TOI that passengers regularly throw plastic bottles, soiled diapers, tissue papers, and paper cups into the commode, clogging it. Once a bathroom is blocked, there is nothing the crew can do to fix it.
"The next flight is delayed, the losses are multifold," an unnamed airline source told TOI.
According to the report, the older aircrafts had a toilet system that was cleaned using a blue liquid chemical. At the time, blockages could be cleared by pouring hot water and flushing the commode. The newer aircraft like the Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 come with a vacuum flush system where such fixes are impossible.
Instead, the objects blocking the flush have to be located and extracted, and then the flush repaired. Airline sources told TOI that this happens on an average at least 30-60 times every month.
These problems take place in other airlines too. Earlier this month, a SpiceJet flight from Bengaluru to Delhi had to diverted to Hyderabad because of a foul smell from the lavatory.
Also On HuffPost:
