A flight operated by the low-cost carrier EasyJet had to be cancelled and passengers disembarked on Sunday night after excrement was found on the floor of the aircraft's toilet, CNN reports.
The flight was flying from Tenerife in the Canary Islands (Spain) to London Gatwick Airport (United Kingdom) and was already several hours late by the time passengers were asked to leave the plane.
Two-hour delay at boarding
According to a passenger on the plane, contacted by CNN, the aircraft used for the flight was changed at the last moment to a smaller one, which would have prevented some passengers from boarding, while the flight was already two hours late. Those who had secured a seat on board then waited another hour as airport teams managed the flow of luggage, which was too heavy for the aircraft.
It was then that the captain had finally told them that the departure could take place within 20 minutes that the "incident" would have occurred, explains Aaran Gedhu. The man was sitting in the middle of the aircraft and claims to have seen "two passengers" pass through the toilet at the front of the aircraft. Soon after, the rumor began to spread through the cabin and the smell was quickly smelled by all the passengers.
"It was a very unpleasant experience. It was evident that the aircraft was in an unsanitary condition. They had to call in airport cleaners, so they put the exterior stairs back in for the cleaners to come in. All the passengers remained in their seats for the duration of the intervention, but when it was over, the pilot finally told them that they would have to leave the aircraft, as reported by one of the passengers in a video published on X, formerly Twitter.
Real good of @easyJet to delay the flight 3.5 hours with 0 communication then decide to cancel it altogether because someone took a shit on the toilet floor🤯 quite literally couldn't make this shit up🥲 #easyjet pic.twitter.com/E9lpCA4rew
— kitty florence lucia (@kittystreekx) October 16, 2023
A special chartered flight the next day
It then took 30 minutes to arrange for the travelers to get off the hotel, about 45 minutes from the airport. The next day, a special flight was chartered to take care of all the injured people.
Questioned by the American channel, the airline confirmed that this incident had prevented the take-off of the aircraft, for "safety reasons". "Some baggage has been unloaded for carriage on the next available flight for safety reasons, due to the overloading of the aircraft," EasyJet said in a statement.
"The flight was then delayed overnight as the aircraft required additional cleaning," the statement continued. "We provided accommodation to all guests, but as there were few hotels available in the area, we also informed guests who had booked their own room that they would be refunded. (...) While this is beyond our control, we would like to apologize to our customers for any inconvenience caused."
A similar incident occurred in September on a flight from Atlanta to Barcelona. The aircraft had been forced to turn back due to a passenger's diarrhea.