On Wednesday, Air India flight 126 from Chicago O’Hare to Delhi took off at 11:24 a.m. on its 14-hour journey. However, four and a half hours into the flight, the Boeing 777-300ER (registration VT-ALQ) crossed over Greenland as the the 11th out of 12 lavatories clogged and became inoperable. One business class lav still worked. The airline decided to fly the four and a half hours back to Chicago.
The plane made it back to Chicago O’Hare nearly 10 hours after departure. Passengers were deplaned, and only two airline employees were on site to assist 300 people. Delta Air Lines staff became sympathetic and volunteered to help Air India employees.
Air India says all passengers and crew were accommodated overnight and that alternative travel arrangements were being organized.
Upon landing at Chicago, all passengers and crew disembarked normally and have been provided with accommodation to minimise inconvenience. Alternative arrangements are being made to fly the passengers to their destination.
Air India Boeing 777, Copyright: boarding1now / 123RF Stock Photo
In fact, organized appears to mean ‘passengers were told to contact customer service’. Customer service representatives appeared uninformed about the incident, and reportedly had no immediate solutions.
A reader shares,
My cousin, for whom I had booked a first class ticket using Avianca Miles (SEA-ORD on United, ORD-DEL on Air India), was traveling for a wedding and wasn’t able to make it there. Instead, she opted to turn around and come back to Seattle. We’re now in the midst of customer service hell with Avianca, Lifemiles and Air India to figure out how to get a refund for the miles ticket.
The aircraft remained grounded at Chicago O’Hare for two days, so significant maintenance and cleaning was required to restore the aircraft to operational status.
The airline used to promote that travel with them was like visiting India, but the good parts. They’re making big investments in plane and branding, but clearly they have work to do with irregular operations recovery at outstations.
Update: an Air India spokesman offers,
We are aware of some social media posts about the unserviceable lavatories on AI126 operating Chicago to Delhi on 05 March 2025 that caused the flight’s diversion back to its origin, Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
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.
While we fully empathize with passengers who faced discomfort and whose travel plans have been affected by the flight’s diversion, we would like to put forth the following facts about the flight:
- The flight departed in time at 1648 Hrs (UTC).
- About an hour and forty-five minutes into the flight, the crew reported some of the lavatories in Business and Economy Class to be unserviceable. Subsequently, eight of the 12 lavatories in the aircraft became unserviceable, causing discomfort to all on board.
- 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.
- Upon landing at Chicago, all passengers were provided immediate assistance, including hotel accommodation and alternative flight options to continue their journey to Delhi.
While not found on AI126 of 05 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.
Sounds like they need to make better arrangement for aircraft maintenance. Seriously how do you have all 12 toilets quit after 4 hours? There really is no excuse. None. No maybe this or that- an MBA somewhere observed a savings of $1 a day by cutting corners.
Definitely, Ruchard.
Is AI having internal maintenance issues? Having that many lavs going out in just four hours makes me wonder. Are their passengers flushing things that don’t belong in the lavs? I.e., WTH?
I wonder if other travelers will take note about flying on Air India and change their plans. As for the cousin who missed the wedding, a couple of extra days should have been built into the schedule to accommodate flight problems. That’s what I did two years ago when I was traveling to a wedding.
this is india in a nutshell. why is anyone suprised?
I’ve busted the occasional toilet after one too many trips to the buffet counter at my local Indian restaurant.
I’m guessing some pax tried to flush non-flushable items down the toilets. Just because an item says ‘disposable’ does NOT mean it’s flushable.
Yeah, I’m guessing there was actually one clog, but it backed up all the toilets. Rough situation.
And FWIW, I think the problem with Air India is really just cleanliness. I’ve recently considered flying them, and that’s the biggest problem, by far. I’m decidedly not particularly picky about such things (my wife’s family is Nicaraguan, and not wealthy, but we stay with them often). So if I have a problem with cleanliness, it means that Air India has deep, obvious issues.
If they could get that cleaned up, I think they could start competing with Turkish… not the world’ best business class, but decent, with a lot of award availability! Over time they could potentially pivot into a premium carrier, but it all starts with getting those planes cleaned so they’re no longer just saturated with grime throughout and in a layer on everything in the cabin.
I was literally just commenting on a separate post here about how awful Air India’s 777s are—Gary’s point in the other post was describing Air India’s recent privatization and planned purchase of hundreds of new aircraft could be a big deal for the airline—but, for now, there’s no way I’m flying with them again until they have new planes. Accidents can happen with any airline, but with Air India, generally, the quality control and maintenance standards have not been up to snuff for a while. Hoping they will invest in the right improvements and actually lead themselves to become a much better carrier.
Past experience, not flying them even if it’s free!!
It’s a sabotage from Khalistanies. !
AI getting constipated too? That’s a first. But unlikely the last.
It’s not like other airlines don’t have their own set of problems.
But AI’s travails are unique. Keeping my fingers crossed that no passenger safety has been involved in the numerous mishaps since Tata takeover (when eager anticipation of improved services was overwhelming) including many ‘stopovers in Siberia’ due to engine failures etc.
Safety first – all said and done, on these predominantly very long haul flights of Air India
heh, love this part–
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Like any business dependent on service? You see how terrible these “airline alliances” are when things go bad. The partner airlines generally despise the parasite passengers flying “free and privileged” using program miles.
I just flew.Air India from DC to Bamgkok. It was the biggest nightmare I have ever had flying and I will NEVER fly them again even if it is free. The 777 in DC was just as dirty as this one and the flight was delayed on DC for over 6 hours (maintenancd) making us late in Delhi for our connection flight. 24 hours with no place to get food or water or sleep because we didn’t have a visa for India. Finally got to bangkok and NO LUGGAGE. The biggest problem with Air Imdia was the service. THEY screwed up our international flight and DID-NOT-CARE. Every agent.lied to is and was utterly uncaring about the situation they put us in. Ive flown MANY airlines. Most have no problems. When there are problems, they bend over backwards to make it right. We were not the only ones treated poorly in Delhi. They had an entire roomful of angry patrons cryong, screaming and in utter dispair due to Delhis poor service. Air India needs to cease masquerading as an airline. Just because you have planes doesn’t mean you are an airline. Provlems happen. Mistakes come up. THAT is when you have an opportunity to shine as a company. Air India has the worst planes, the worst customer service (they all lied to us and even laughed at us as though we were a joke to them) and they need to have a complete makeover to even be competitive with the failing discount airlines in the USA. You can choose many airlines. I’d recommend not choosing Air India. I flew them 10 years ago with no problem. This experience last week was on a different level of hell and I’m embarrassed for the company that they consider what they offer as “service”.
Air India will continue to be a shitty airline as long as there are govt employees in charge of things.
AI at the moment is not the best airline. Even then clogging 11 of 12 toilets appears to be a planned sabotage by some individuals/groups
We had a horrible experience a week ago…same airline, similar issues…broken seats, entertainment not working, USB plugs busted, toilets didn’t work, dietary meals forgotten and more….just ridiculous.
At this point Air India is an intelligence test. If you fly with them despite hearing about all of this, you have failed the test and have only yourself to blame.
@Brian, you might consider sending a polite email to the CEO (campbell.wilson@airindia.in) providing the main details of your ordeal, emphasising that an important measure of an airline is how they treat / accommodate passengers during irregular ops. Acknowledge the tough job he has ahead of him to transform the airline.
Quite likely one of his assistants will reach out to you to offer monetary compensation via wire transfer to your bank. (I speak from personal experience with this airline.) The money won’t fully compensate for the suffering you endured, but paying out compensation to passengers will encourage the airline take the issues seriously.
At least when they called support they could understand them.
Damn they shat a lot.
What makes AI bad are shitty staff and less than civil indian passengers. There is no cure of these people problem. Even the newer planes will suffer from the same issues if we can’t change these staff.
I’m just curious to know why the crew didn’t divert to Boston or Kennedy since they’re literally on the coast.
While sitting in the large Admirals Club at ORD, I saw this flight pull out of T5 and takeoff.
Merely having a foreigner as a CEO or big scale ads will not be sufficient to make an airline running properly without complaints. The continuous flow of complaints of all nature, and particularly about the conditions in the air craft, should make the Co sit and reflect. Probably they may come to the conclusion that it is wiser to close down. It is also likely that the staff manning the operations are still under nationalised hang over. But it appears that the condition has deteriorated since privatisation. A faulty decision by the Tatas. Once when a biz magnate was asked how to become a millionaire in the shortest time, he replied ” start with a billion and begin an airline.”
I think that the return to the original departure airport was probably done so that the airplane was positioned correctly for resuming flying in the future. The distance wasn’t that much farther than diverting to other airports on the coast that Air India flies into and out of. Also, by returning to Chicago, at least some passengers would be able to return home in the interim until an alternate flight got them to their destination. Additionally, stocking the airplane when it flew out may have logistically been better.
It’s a product of nepotism and corruption. AI employees pay lot of money to be hired, or have connections with people up high. Once hired, they’re not going to do the work that their servants do at their house. They have never had to clean toilets at home, or much of anything else. They’re not going to do it after greasing many palms in order get the job.