An international flight from Chicago to India had to return to its point of departure after 10 hours in the air due to what is being reported as an issue with multiple clogged toilets.
Air India Flight 126 left Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Wednesday, March 5, at 10:59 a.m. local time and spent a total of 10 hours and nine minutes in the air, before it ultimately landed back in Chicago later that same day at 9:09 p.m. — rather than its planned destination of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, per Flight Aware.
According to the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency, Hindustan Times and The New York Post — the latter of which cites the blog View from the Wing — the flight reportedly turned around when multiple toilets had been clogged.
Both the Times and the Post, however, report different information, with the latter sharing that 11 out of the plane’s 12 toilets broke down and the former claiming that nine of 10 were not functional.
The single functional toilet was located in business class, the Times reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.
In a statement to both outlets, the airline cited a “technical issue” as the reason for the Boeing 777-300 ER jet’s return to Chicago.
“Upon landing at Chicago, all passengers and crew disembarked normally and have been provided with accommodation to minimize inconvenience,” Air India said in a statement to the Post.
“Alternative arrangements are being made to fly the passengers to their destination,” the airline added.
The airline also told the outlet that “full refunds on cancellation and complimentary rescheduling are also being offered to passengers if opted by them.”
A spokesperson for Air India did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Sunday, March 9. PEOPLE also reached out to the Chicago Department of Aviation for comment.
Aviation consultant Mark Martin said, per the Times, that while it isn’t “uncommon for one or two vacuum toilets to get clogged because passengers often flush tissues or diapers,” it is “next to impossible” for all to be clogged “due to only passengers’ fault, and in a way that it causes an emergency diversion.”
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Last August, a United Airlines flight headed from Germany to San Francisco was diverted due to a reported overflow from a plane toilet into the cabin, per The San Francisco Chronicle.
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