A British Airways captain told passengers the smell was from 'liquid faecal excrement' in a toilet
A town
councillor from Hertfordshire says a British Airways flight to Dubai was
forced to return to London due to a foul odour emanating from an
overflowing toilet.
Hertsmere
councillor Abhishek Sachdev, who represents Potters Bar Parkfield, said
the seven-hour flight was aborted ‘because of a smelly poo in the
toilet’
.
Cabin
crew were unable to fix the problem and the smell became unbearable for
passengers seated nearby, forcing the plane to turn around near
Brussels and land at Heathrow Airport.
Mr
Sachdev, a Tory councillor, said the flight departed on time Thursday
night and everything seemed fine until the captain made an announcement
about 30 minutes after take-off.
He told MailOnline Travel: ‘The pilot made an announcement requesting senior cabin crew, and we knew something was a bit odd.
About 10 minutes later he said you may have noticed there’s a quite pungent smell coming from one of the toilets.
‘He
said it was liquid faecal excrement, those are the words he used. He
said it’s not a technical fault with the plane, and he was very adamant
about that.’
Hertsmere councillor Abhishek Sachdev said passengers were told that crew could not fix the problem
The captain informed passengers that the plane’s crew had examined the problem, but were unable to fix it.
He told them that the plane would be forced to return to London for health and safety reasons.
Passengers
were initially told that they would board another flight in three
hours, but it turned into a 15-hour delay, said Mr Sachdev, who was
travelling with his pregnant wife, Rupa, and their two-year-old
daughter, Shravani.
He
said the airline offered an apology and provided hotel accommodation
and food vouchers, but claimed BA ground staff were unprepared and told
the travellers to contact the Civil Aviation Authority for compensation.
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Tory councillor Abhishek Sachdev was travelling with his pregnant wife and their two-year-old daughter
Mr Sachdev, who wasn’t seated near the toilet in question, said passengers departed for Dubai yesterday at 1pm.
He
said: ‘It’s obviously disappointing to lose a whole day of your trip.
You might expect it on some random airline, but you wouldn’t expect it
from British Airways.’
After
the plane landed at Heathrow, the councillor tweeted: ‘Insane! Our BA
flight to Dubai returned back to Heathrow because of a smelly poo in the
toilet! 15hrs until next flight/’
A British Airways spokesperson told MailOnline Travel: 'We're very sorry for the discomfort to our customers.
'We provided them with hotel accommodation and rescheduled the flight to depart the next day.'
