Clogged lavatories on Air India flight: Do flyers need toilet training?

An Air India flight bound for Delhi from the United States was forced to return to Chicago on March 5 after several of its toilets broke down mid-air. After the news grabbed worldwide headlines, the airline has revealed what caused blockage in the majority of the lavatories on the AI126 flight.

It is not the first time a flight had to turn back due to unserviceable lavatories. Air India has faced the issue of “toilet abuse” before, along with other airlines. This time, the Tata-owned carrier has urged passengers to “use lavatories only for the purposes that they are meant for.”

Let’s take a closer look.

Why Air India Chicago-Delhi flight had to turn back

An Air India plane from Chicago to Delhi with some 300 passengers on board had to head back to Chicago O’Hare International Airport last week due to clogged toilets. An hour and forty-five minutes into the flight, the crew reported that the majority of the lavatories in the Business and Economy sections were out of order.

The airline said in a statement Monday (March 10) that eight of the 12 toilets on the Boeing 777-300ER plane became “unserviceable” when it was making its way over Greenland on March 5.

A spokesperson for Air India confirmed that the flight from Chicago to Delhi had to return due to a “technical snag”.

Will the person who felt compelled to flush their clothes down the toilet and the other people who don’t trash their tissues on AI126 please stand up and pay Air India for the diversion please? https://t.co/2g3HCeIHhX pic.twitter.com/SdUdVAyYST

— Ajay Awtaney (@LiveFromALounge) March 10, 2025

“We would like to confirm that as part of our investigation into the incident, our teams found polythene bags, rags, and clothes that had been flushed down and stuck in the plumbing. This led the lavatories to become unserviceable,” the airline said.

“By this time, the aircraft was overflying the Atlantic, leaving points in Europe as potential cities to divert to. However, due to restrictions on night operations at most of the European airports, it was decided to divert back to Chicago. The decision to divert was taken entirely in the interest of passenger comfort and safety,” Air India added in its statement.

The airline said it helped passengers with hotel accommodations and alternative flight arrangements so they could continue their travel to Delhi.

“While not found on AI126 of 5 March 2025, our teams have previously also found objects such as blankets, innerwear, and diapers, among other waste, having been 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,” Air India said.

Past instances

Last month, an Air France flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Brazil after a passenger reportedly clogged the toilet.

Last year, pilots for a United Airlines plane from Frankfurt to San Francisco were forced to turn back to Germany due to a flooded toilet.

In 2023, an Austrian Airlines plane carrying some 300 people from Vienna to New York had to return after five of eight toilets broke down.

Air India faced a similar situation in 2017 when toilet troubles affected its Delhi-Chicago flight. A Boeing 777 took off for a 16-hour non-stop journey to the US from the Indian capital with four lavatories out of order. When the plane with 340 people on board was just a couple of hours away from its destination, the remaining eight toilets also got clogged.

A senior Air India official had blamed passengers flushing stuff like plastic bottles and sanitary napkins into the toilets for the blockage.

In 2016, Air India’s Newark-Mumbai flight had to make an unscheduled landing at Istanbul after all toilets on the plane stopped flushing.

‘Toilet abuse’

Flyers stuffing the aircraft’s toilets with trash indicate a need for a much-needed toilet training. Such actions cause a “stink” for the airlines whose earnings take a hit.

“If a passenger throws any object into the toilet, like a plastic bottle, soiled diapers, a bunch of tissue papers, it could damage its vacuum flush system. Then the object has to be located, it has to be removed and the flush system repaired. The next flight is delayed, the losses are multifold,” an airline source told Times of India (TOI) in 2017.

Aircraft such as the Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 use advanced technology like a vacuum flush.

A senior Air India cabin crew member told TOI, “The older aircraft used the blue liquid chemical toilet flush system. When there was a blockage, we would pour hot water and then flush after some time and it would often clear the blockage."

Once toilets on planes that have vacuum flush get blocked, airlines cannot do much. Such “toilet abuse” renders the lavatories unusable, not only troubling the passengers on board but also costing the carriers.

With inputs from agencies