Denmark's Prince Joachim, left, and Princess Marie receive flowers before the opening ceremony of a Danish design products exhibition in Hong Kong Tuesday. The royal couple was all smiles, but some Cathay Pacific passengers to the Chinese city this month were not when toilets on their flights became unusable. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
Planning a trip to Hong Kong in the near future? You might want to avoid flying there on Cathay Pacific, unless you’re really good at “holding it.”
The BBC reports that the airline’s Airbus jets have been experiencing severe toilet blockages on flights to Hong Kong. A flight from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia even was forced to make an unscheduled stop in Mumbai, India when all 10 of the plane’s toilets stopped working. The flight was delayed for 18 hours. Cathay Pacific apologized to passengers and issued them travel vouchers.
Two other flights to Hong Kong this month, one from Rome and the other from Dubai, suffered similar problems, forcing the airline to restrict the number of passengers on the flights. Those flights were able to continue to their destination because the blockages affected only toilets on one side of the aircraft.
Airbus is replacing plumbing on the jets, which use vacuum pipes to transport waste to a holding tank that is emptied between flights. An airline spokesperson noted that passengers contribute to the problem by flushing items they shouldn’t, including medicine containers, clothing items, and even stuffed animals.
Comments
Well the one-liners are endless with this story but I think we can all agree that somethings smells about trips to Hong Kong.
Passengers are warned on these flights during these back ups to not turn on the bathroom fan.
I don't see how a travel voucher for the future helps someone who needs the toilet operating NOW.
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