In possibly the first instance of its kind in India, foul smell from a stinking toilet on its Bengaluru-Delhi flight on Sunday forced Spicejet to divert the plane to Hyderabad, said the budget carrier.
"A B-737-800 operating from Bengaluru to New Delhi had to be diverted to Hyderabad due to very foul smell emanating from forward lavatory into the cockpit," said the airline in a statement in Bengaluru.
In all, 194 people, including 184 passengers, four infants, two pilots and four cabin crew were on board when the foul smell entered the cockpit.
"The lavatory and cockpit were cleaned on landing and ventilated before the aircraft was cleared for onward journey," added the statement.
However, this is not the first such instance ever reported.
In March 2015, The Daily Mail reports that a foul smell coming from the plane’s toilet forced a British Airways flight to Dubai to return to London.
The seven-hour flight was cut short ‘because of a smelly poo in the toilet’, the report says.
As the odour became unbearable for the passengers seated nearby and cabin crew were unable to solve the problem, the plane was forced to turn back near Brussels and land at Heathrow airport, the report adds.
Abhishek Sachdev, a Tory councillor told MailOnline Travel: “The pilot made an announcement requesting senior cabin crew, and we knew something was a bit odd.
About 10 minutes later he said you may have noticed there’s a quite pungent smell coming from one of the toilets.
He said it was liquid faecal excrement, those are the words he used. He said it’s not a technical fault with the plane, and he was very adamant about that.”
(With IANS inputs)