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Jet2 flight to Manchester diverts 200 miles and makes emergency landing for bizarre reason
A Jet2 plane from the Canaries to Manchester steered off course to mainland Spain so passengers could use the loo.
Flight LS782 from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, left an hour late at 5.03pm for the 1,878-mile journey to Manchester.
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The Airbus A321 flew its normal course over the Atlantic, southern Portugal, and western Spain with its 200 passengers, but before it reached the north coast, the flight took an unexpected turn east to fly two circuits before landing at Bilbao.
An aviation account on Twitter: “Jet2 flight LS782 en route to Manchester from Gran Canaria has just diverted to Bilbao due to the toilets being broken on board and to allow passengers off to use the toilet.”
According to , the Airbus A321 is fitted with four toilets.
The Federal Aviation Administration appears to include regulations that only require working restrooms in some instances, but allows airlines to decide whether to fly planes with faulty toilets.
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Flight LS782 landed at the Spanish airport at 7.11pm GMT and remained there for almost two hours.
Flight Emergency then: “Bladders emptied, LS782 is back on its way.”
Passengers finally made it back to Manchester two hours later at 11.01pm. But they cannot claim compensation for the delay under European air passengers' rights rules.
The diversion will cost Jet2 additional thousands of pounds in fuel costs and airport handling fees.
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A spokesperson for Jet2 said: “Flight LS782 from Gran Canaria to Manchester was diverted to Bilbao yesterday so that the toilet tank could be emptied. Customers remained onboard, before the flight took off again to Manchester.
"As an award-winning airline, the comfort and well-being of our customers is of paramount importance to us, however we apologise if this caused any inconvenience.”
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