A United Airlines flight to San Francisco from Germany was forced to return to Frankfurt Airport because of an overwhelming, foul odor coming from a malfunctioning toilet.
After taking off, Flight 59 had to reverse course over the North Sea after passengers and crew members discovered the defective toilet, which was overflowing with waste that was entering the cabin, The Sun reported.
Ground engineers contacted to try to fix the situation mid-flight were unsuccessful, prompting the Boeing 777’s pilots to decide to return to Frankfurt.
United Airlines said the flight experienced a maintenance issue pertaining to the lavatory and said affected passengers were accommodated overnight and rescheduled for travel the following day.
The incident comes on the heels of another event involving United Airlines, in which a flight encountered severe turbulence en route to Newark Liberty International Airport from Tel Aviv. During the attempt to land, the plane met with high winds leading to “extreme turbulence,” which resulted in injuries to 22 people, seven of whom required hospitalization, while another 15 received on-site medical attention.
The flight was rerouted as a precautionary measure to Stewart International Airport in New York, where one passenger had to deboard for medical reasons. Others were treated for motion sickness symptoms. Eventually, the aircraft refueled and flew to its originally intended destination at Newark.
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