Because we all know how quickly a travel experience can turn from good to bad when there’s limited access to working toilets, the crew of an American Airlines flight from Dallas to Honolulu decided to make an unscheduled pit stop after three of the plane’s six lavatories malfunctioned.

The Boeing 767 jet heading to Hawaii on Sunday landed with an unusually heavy load of fuel, reports the Orange County Register. Planes don’t have any methods for dumping extra fuel, pilots say, making this kind of emergency touchdown out of the ordinary.

But the Los Angeles Fire Department says despite having five hours worth of fuel in the aircraft, the plane’s flaps and brakes functioned normally and it came to a safe, proper stop on the runway.

A spokeswoman for the airline confirmed to the Associated Press that the plane landed in L.A. because of the broken toilets, and that it took off about 2.5 hours later after maintenance fixed the restrooms.

Can we just take a moment to recognize the poor souls who have to be the ones to discover/report that the toilets aren’t working? It might be an awkward job, but someone has to do it.

Plane with malfunctioning toilets makes unplanned pit stop [Orange County Register]
Broken toilets cause Honolulu-bound jet to divert to LAX [Associated Press]

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