A DODGY loo forced a plane packed with Brit tourists to make an emergency landing, according to Spanish air traffic control.
Ryanair flight FR1667 was heading from Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands to Bristol – but a mid-air toilet malfunction reportedly forced it to re-route to neighbouring Lanzarote.
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It should have reached Bristol around 5pm this afternoon after departing from Fuerteventura at lunchtime.
But it diverted to Lanzarote shortly into its three-and-a-half hour journey after “some toilets” stopped working, local air traffic controllers said.
It was not immediately clear what exactly went wrong with the facilities.
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In the past, restricted access to loos on planes has led to passengers relieving themselves in bottles.
The plane touched down in Lanzarote just before 3pm today after an hour and a half in the sky.
Spanish air traffic controllers wrote on social media: “The flight crew on a plane from Fuerteventura to Bristol asked to return to Lanzarote because of problems with some of the toilets.
“It landed without problems.”
They drew attention to the flight path of the Boeing 737, showing it travelled north of the Canary Islands over the Atlantic but then turned back on itself sharply.
It’s not clear whether passengers were then able to resume their journey to the UK, or whether they were forced to spend the night in Lanzarote.
The Sun has approached Ryanair for comment.
In August, Virgin Australia passengers reportedly had to use bottles after all three onboard toilets failed during a six-hour flight from Bali to Brisbane.
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 had already departed with one toilet out of service, and the remaining two malfunctioned mid-flight, leaving passengers without facilities for the final three hours.
One elderly woman is said to have wet herself while other passengers described foul smells and urine seeping onto the floor.
Virgin apologised afterwards, praising the crew for handling a “challenging situation.”
On Thursday, a Jet2 flight from Edinburgh to Tenerife had to be given priority landing after a cabin crew member was attacked by a passenger.
Air traffic controllers at Tenerife South Airport allowed the pilot to shorten the plane’s journey “as much as possible” as it landed.
The crew asked for medical assistance and for police to meet the plane when it touched down.
A Jet2 spokesperson said afterwards: ‘We can confirm that police were called to offload a disruptive passenger from flight LS739.”