Philippine Airlines says their Los Angeles to Manila flight PR113 had an in-flight lavatory malfunction, and they prepared to divert to Guam but after “technical and operational assessment” the flight continued to Manila.
The assessment involved flight attendants being instructed to manually scoop human waste and dispose of it into adjacent basins so passengers could keep using the toilets.
According to the airline, the problem was solved and at the end of the flight lavatories were functioning normally at the end of the flight.
According to crew onboard, all lavatory flushing mechanisms failed on the Boeing 777. Guam was six hours away. So they decided flight attendants as plumbers with the most disgusting job ever was a better solution despite biosecurity, sanitation, and occupational safety concerns. Flight attendants reported the incident to their union after the flight.
Lavatory issues are a surprisingly frequent cause of problems for planes. 300 Air India passengers were stranded after a 9-hour flight to nowhere after 11 toilets clogged.
Sometimes crew can fix the problem – Delta operated a flight to London without working water, so flight attendants dumped bottled water down the toilet every 20 minutes. Over at American flight attendants told passengers they’d need to dump in the bottled water themselves and an American flight passengers were told to just go ina bottle.
They are already underpaid!!! Gross
After the Philippine Airlines flight attendants manually scooped human waste and disposed of it into adjacent basins, they completed serving the in-flight meals to their valued and hungry customers.
I’m here for the all the crappy jokes.
Please. Amuse me.
“Who wants chowda?!”
*vomit*
OK- Somewhat contrarian response… but here goes. I do post here regularly, AA EP member.
And in the 1990’s (91-99) I was a summer camp counselor and then Assistant Director at a 4/8 week summer camp in Northern Wisconsin. (Ironically, I am typing this on AA flying to MSP to go snowmobiling there this week!).
When you are responsible for dozens or hundreds of people, guess what? Ship happens. 🙂
It’s rare, but it does happen. Campers/passengers (people!) get nervous, and septic systems overflow- just like on an airline except we have more space at camp**.
So I have been called to be on “Ship Duty”, and while it’s not ideal, you do it because it makes everyone else better. You get over it, and clean up,
So judos to the flight attendants that put community first. It’s a thing.
-Jon
** – You would think that campers (kids age 9-16) would be willing to “go in nature” but they are terrified and would rather add to something indoors than go into the woods, lol.
I looked up the flight on FlightAware. I also grabbed my 12 inch world globe and a piece of string to see where the great circle route was. The January 26 flight PAL113 never got close to Guam (yes, I know that the specific flight was on an unspecified day the week before). It did get close to Tokyo and that would have been the closest diversion place for any true emergency. Diverting to Guam would have been almost as long as flying to Manila with six hours left in the flight (Guam is 1,600 miles due east of Manila and great circle flights between LAX and MNL go much further north over the Pacific Ocean). Maybe part of the details were made up to dramatize the story. I wonder if the story as told even really happened.
That job Stinks
Had a friend who was a FA for Delta in the days before it filed Chapter 11 (its unpaid vendor in the UK refused to cater the flight) and she served nothing but pretzels in F for a 9 hour flight from LHR-ATL.
Ironically, since this happened, some of the flights to SE that I was tracking have dumped… cheapest option… “Philippine Airlines” (Yeah, no yeah…I’m good.)
@ Jon
in the 1990s, 9-16 yr olds were unwilling to take a dump in the woods? Explains a lot about what is wrong with those people.