Defective toilets force return of transatlantic Swiss flight to Zurich

A Swiss International Air Lines flight to Miami had to return to Zurich because all seven toilets went out of action. The problem, which was eventually fixed, caused a delay of several hours for the 236 passengers.

The December 20 flight from Zurich to Miami was aborted after about three hours when the problem was discovered over the Atlantic sea, west of Ireland. The Airbus A330-300 captain took the decision to return the flight back to Zurich, according to the online news portal Watson.

Technicians back at Zurich airport identified the problem as a defect in the waste water system, which took around four hours to fix.

The flight eventually returned to the air and delivered the passengers to Miami – but at least eight hours behind schedule.

“Of course, it’s very unpleasant when something like this happens,” a Swiss International Air Lines spokesman told the Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA. But the spokesman added that problems of this nature are extremely rare.

Earlier this year, in an unrelated event, the airline was forced to temporarily ground its fleet of A220s after one aircraft encountered a technical fault with its engines.