Mysterious toilet blockages force Cathay Pacific airbus to divert to Mumbai

Hongkong: Airbus said Wednesday it was investigating a series of mystery toilet blockages on Cathay Pacific planes which forced one passenger jet to make an unscheduled landing in India.
Toilets on the Hongkong-based airline's A330 and A340 Airbuses have become blocked three times in the space of 11 days, with one flight diverted and two others forced to reduce passenger numbers.
In the worst case, a flight from Riyadh to Hongkong on Nov 17 with 278 passengers on board had to divert to Mumbai when flight attendants discovered none of the 10 toilets on board were working.
The diversion resulted in an 18-hour delay for repairs and a crew change for what should have been a routine eight-hour flight. Passengers received an apology and vouchers as compensation.
Two other Hongkong-bound flights - one from Rome on Nov 9 and another from Dubai on Nov 19 - had to cut passenger numbers when crew found before take-off all toilets on one side of the plane blocked.
Cathay Pacific and Airbus both said they were unsure about the exact cause of the blockages but an airline spokeswoman said the problem was being tackled with a cross-fleet maintenance operation.
Passengers might be partly to blame, she suggested. "You would be amazed at what we find in the pipes when we clean the system - not just face towels but medicine bottles, socks and even children's stuffed toys," the spokeswoman said.
25/11/09 Sun2Surf, Malaysia

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Categories: Airports Nov 2009, Foreign Nov 2009