If we learned anything from the great Poop Cruise debacle endured by passengers on the Carnival Triumph, it’s that working toilets are essential on any vessel carrying passengers for any length of time. Because no one is happy when you can’t flush after you go. A Japan Airline’s flight from Moscow to Tokyo had to turn around two hours into the trip after the 787 Dreamliner plane’s toilets broke, threatening to turn the whole thing into a Poop Flight.

Japan Airlines says the Boeing plane carrying 151 passengers and crew had some kind of problem that incapacitated the toilets last night, reports the AFP. The journey usually takes about 10 hours — which would’ve been 10 very uncomfortable hours without the ability to flush.

“It was hit by trouble — toilets became unable to be used and the device to heat meals also had a problem,” a spokesman said.

The glitch could be due to an electrical fault but had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the plane’s batteries, the spokesman added. Those batteries have already proved to be a headache for the Dreamliner, after the lithium-ion batteries overheated on two different planes earlier in 2013. The entire fleet was grounded globally as a result.

Japan Airlines and its rival All Nippon Airways have since put their flights back into service after fixing the batteries in June.

Batteries and toilets are equally important, there is no doubt about that.

Broken toilet flush forces JAL Dreamliner to turn back [AFP]

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