A few years back, I had the unpleasant experience of sitting behind a baby that had vomited all over his row only an hour into a flight from San Francisco to New York. I remember wishing at the time that there would be some non-disastrous reason for the plane to have to make an early landing so I could get away from the smell. Little did I know it would only have taken a single dirty diaper.

Earlier this week, passengers on a Qantas flight across Australia from Darwin to Brisbane complained of a suspicious stench wafting about the cabin.

The commotion became so bad that the plane made an emergency landing in Mount Isa, more than 1,000 miles from its destination.

The culprit: A dirty diaper that someone had unsuccessfully attempted to flush down a plane toilet.

“Unfortunately the fumes turned out to be a very smelly nappy dumped in the fwd toilet,” reads a statement from Qantas. “‘Procedures dictate to land as soon as possible. [It’s] very embarrassing for us all at [Qantas], but, better safe than sorry.”

The UK’s Daily Mail reports that a forklift was required to get passengers off the plane.

Travelers were put on to another jet and whisked away to Brisbane. However, they still had to wait for the plane with the soiled nappy to be checked and cleaned before they could get all the luggage that remained in its cargo hold.

Qantas flight grounded by a DIRTY NAPPY after passengers complain of strange smell [Daily Mail]

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