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An Air India flight from Chicago to Delhi was pressured to show again after eight of the 12 bogs on the plane have been clogged.
An investigation discovered that the bogs have been clogged by polythene baggage, rags and garments that had been flushed down and caught within the plumbing, Air India mentioned in a press release on Monday.
Flight AI126 had left the Chicago O’Hare worldwide airport at 4.48 pm native time on 5 March for a 14-hour journey to Delhi.
“About an hour and forty-five minutes into the flight, the crew reported a few of the bathrooms in enterprise and economic system class to be unserviceable,” it mentioned. “By this time, the plane was overflying the Atlantic, leaving factors in Europe as potential cities to divert to. Nonetheless, because of restrictions on night time operations at many of the European airports, it was determined to divert again to Chicago. The choice to divert was taken completely within the curiosity of passenger consolation and security.”
Discovering no viable stopover choices, the aircraft, with almost 300 passengers on board, turned again and landed in Chicago.
Monitoring information from Flightradar24 confirmed the aircraft was close to Greenland when it reversed course, logging slightly below 10 hours within the air.
“Passengers have been supplied fast help, together with lodge lodging and various flight choices to proceed their journey to Delhi,” Air India mentioned.
The airline mentioned that “eight out of 12 bathrooms within the plane turned unserviceable, inflicting discomfort to all on board”, sparking a debate on social media about the bathroom etiquette of the passengers.
Whereas many individuals blamed passenger behaviour, some criticised the airline’s maintenance. One consumer wrote on X: “Will the one that felt compelled to flush their garments down the bathroom and the opposite individuals who don’t trash their tissues on AI126 please arise and pay Air India for the diversion please?”
“My mother as soon as flew NYC to DEL on an Air India aircraft that was leaking bathroom water into the aisle,” a Reddit consumer complained. “So, sure that is regular.”
One other commented: “At this level, it’s on individuals who fly on AI particularly on worldwide sectors. I perceive it is likely to be handy for senior residents and people with youngsters to take a nonstop however severely take into consideration the comfort being supplied right here.”
A Reddit consumer claiming to have been on the flight mentioned: “Apparently the crew knew about it however determined to take off. Then the captain didn’t announce that the flight was returning again. Some passengers seen it on the display flight map and raised the problem.”
One other social media consumer criticised the airline: “Inform me its AI, with out telling me it’s AI.”
“My household flew AI a month in the past from ORD to DEL, they usually instructed me solely 4 bogs have been working. So, in a complete month, they didn’t hassle fixing the plane,” one Reddit consumer claimed. “That’s a 15-hour flight and after simply 4 to 5 hours, the remaining bogs have been utterly unusable. We had a toddler who wanted to make use of the lavatory, and no quantity of sanitiser or face masks may make up for the unsanitary circumstances. After arriving in India, they ended up hospitalised for 2 weeks. I had an identical expertise final week on my DEL-IAD flight. I took footage and movies and can be posting them right here and on X quickly.”
The Impartial has reached out to Tata Group, which owns Air India, for remark.
The airline urged travellers to make use of aircraft bathrooms correctly. “Whereas not discovered on AI126 of 5 March 2025, our groups have beforehand additionally discovered objects resembling blankets, innerwear, and diapers, amongst different waste, having been flushed down the bogs on different flights.”
Points with bogs have pressured a number of flights to make emergency landings through the years. In 2017, an Air India flight from Delhi to Chicago noticed all its working bogs exit of use mid-flight, allegedly because of passengers flushing plastic bottles and sanitary gadgets.
A 12 months earlier, an Air India flight from Newark to Mumbai needed to land in Istanbul in spite of everything its bogs stopped functioning.
Extra not too long ago, an Air France flight was diverted to Brazil and a United Airways flight turned again to Germany because of related plumbing failures.
In 2023, an Austrian Airways aircraft returned to Vienna after most of its bogs turned unusable.
Tata Group took again management of Air India after almost 69 years in 2022. Tata had based the airline in 1932, but it surely was nationalised in 1953.
