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Passengers Told to Pee in Bottles After Toilets Stop Working on Flight

URINE FOR A RIDE

Passengers said the cabin smelt of urine as it began to seep into the carpeted floor.

Door lock on interior door of airplane restroom on Airbus aircraft, with blue lighting.
Smith Collection/Gado via Getty Images

Passengers were in for a flight to remember after they were told to urinate in bottles once the bathrooms stopped working. According to 7News Australia, Brisbane-bound Virgin Australia Flight VA50 departing from Denpasar International Airport, Bali, took off on Thursday with one bathroom out of service, leaving only two functioning toilets for the six-hour flight. Limited engineering support at Denpasar forced the plane to take off without fixing the broken lavatory. In a disastrous turn of events, the remaining two toilets on the Boeing 737 MAX 8 broke down during the flight. According to The Australian, a passenger said that “for the remaining three hours, the cabin crew informed us we would need to relieve ourselves in bottles or ‘on top of whatever was already in the toilet,’” adding that one elderly woman wet herself. Passengers said the cabin smelled of urine as it began to seep into the carpeted floor. “Hygiene and sanitation are not optional luxuries; they are basic human rights,” the passenger told The Australian. “We sincerely apologize to our guests and thank our crew for managing a challenging situation on board,” a Virgin Australia spokesperson said in a statement to the Daily Beast. The airline said that passengers will receive credit back for the flight.

Read it at 7News