On Sunday a Jet2 Boeing 737-800 was forced to divert to Manchester Airport while en-route to Lanzarote from Glasgow. Reports suggest a toilet malfunction was responsible for the diversion. Passengers aboard flight LS-167 eventually reached their destination on a replacement aircraft, following a delay of three and a half hours.

After taking off from Glasgow airport at 15:41 on Sunday 4th August, flight LS-167 suffered a technical issue with its toilet, which began to flood. Around 90nm south of Cork, the flight diverted to Manchester airport to allow technicians to carry out maintenance, according to reports by the Aviation Herald.

After landing at Manchester airport, the original aircraft, registration G-JZBC, was checked by technicians who attempted to fix the toilet malfunction. The aircraft, which was only delivered to Jet2 20 months ago, could not be returned to service immediately.

Another Jet2 Boeing 737-800, registration G-GDFV, was used as a replacement to carry customers waiting at Manchester Airport to their final destination.

Following a delay of three and a half hours, the replacement aircraft arrived in Lanzarote.

A Jet2 Boeing 737-85P on the runway at East Midlands Airport
Jet2 announces new routes from 3 of its bases. Photo: James via Flickr

Toilet trouble

Anyone who keeps an eye on the sky knows that commercial flights can be stopped for many bizarre reasons. For example, unexpected flight diversions can sometimes happen when passengers have had a few too many in-flight drinks.

Jet2 itself has suffered at the hands of disruptive passengers before. In June an incident involving an intoxicated woman on a flight from Stansted to Dalman, Turkey made headlines after a sonic boom was heard across the English countryside. In this particular incident, the sonic boom was a result of two RAF Typhoons rushing to escort the Jet2 aircraft.

Not so common is the crew getting too drunk to fly. However, this is exactly what happened on one Qatar Airways flight from Helsinki to Doha back in April. Two flight crew were arrested for turning up to their flight drunk, subsequently delaying it for 10 hours.

A Qatar Airways A350-900 in Adelaide, Australia
Alcohol is a common source of trouble on commercial flights. Photo: Mertie via Flickr

Toilet issues are also not unheard of. In August 2018, a Delta flight from New York to Nice had to turn back halfway into its seven and a half hour flight due to a toilet fault.

How did Jet2 deal with the incident?

A toilet malfunction may not sound like a necessary reason to divert a flight, but lack of working toilets can cause serious problems for passengers. Jet2 responded to Simple Flying’s request for comment on the incident, saying,

“In order to ensure the comfort of our customers, flight LS167 was diverted en-route to Lanzarote on Sunday 4th August to Manchester Airport, to allow technicians to service its toilet facilities… We would like to apologize to customers for the delay to the start of their holiday.”

Following the diversion and rebooking of all customers onto a second aircraft, the flight, which was originally supposed to arrive at 20:15, finally arrived in Lanzarote following a delay of three and a half hours.

As reported by the Daily Record, passenger Graham Ruthven tweeted,

“Good start to our holiday. Arrived just before 12, but here now.”