KLM flight from Amsterdam to Los Angeles was forced to turn around due to only one lavatory in service.
The flight #KL601 departed from Amsterdam on February 12, 2024 40 minutes late to Los Angeles.
The flight was operated by a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner (reg. PH-BKF) for a 11-hour flight to LAX.
But a bit more than one hour into the flight, the crew was informed of several lavatories were out of service.
There are 9 toilets, 1 in the front, 6 in the middle, and 2 in the back.
According to a passenger, the captains decided to turn around but finally changed their mind and continued the flight.
But another hour later, with one toilet in service for over 200 passengers, the pilots didn’t have choice than to return to Amsterdam.
The flight turned around at 34,000ft and landed back 6 hours and 30 minutes after departure.
The aircraft was back into service the day next to Houston performing flight #KL661.
Commercial airplanes are required to have a certain number of lavatories in working order based on the aircraft’s capacity.
Lavatories (airplane toilets) can be inoperative for many reasons, they could get blocked by someone vomiting in the sink, or by throwing tissues or other objects in either the sink or the toilet seat. Sometimes, when a waste tank is full, or there’s a problem in the sensor of the tank giving a wrong signal, all flushes connected to that tank will not work, this happens in modern aircrafts.