Boeing plane traveling to San Francisco forced to turn around after poo from a broken toilet flowed into cabin and left passengers smelling foul odor

• A United Airlines Boeing plane was forced to turn back to Frankfurt after a broken toilet caused feces to flood into the cabin, emitting a foul odor
• The flight was an hour into its journey but technicians were unable to solve the problem so the Boeing 777-300ER returned to Germany
• It is the latest in a string of incidents onboard United Airlines planes over the last few months

A United Airlines flight traveling to San Francisco was forced to make a u-turn in midair and return to Frankfurt after feces flowed from a broken toilet into the cabin filling it with a foul-smelling odor.

United Airlines flight 59, was one hour into its 11hr 30min journey to California when the captain of the Boeing 777-300ER decided the best course of action was to return back to Germany rather than continue to fly across the Atlantic. 

FlightAware shows the plane circled for a short time over the North Sea to the east of England while the crew weighed up their options. Technicians  were unable to find an immediate solution to the problem.

The smell permeated through the entire aircraft shortly after taking off.

Passengers told the contents of the waste tank overflowed and spilled out into the cabin, which only served to worsen the situation. 

The aircraft, which is just seven years old, was back on the ground in Germany just two hours after taking off.  

‘On Friday, March 29, United Flight 59 returned to Frankfurt following a maintenance issue with one of the aircraft’s lavatories,’ a statement by United read. 

‘The passengers were provided with hotel accommodations overnight in Frankfurt – and were rebooked on a different flight to San Francisco the next day’, the statement added.

The incident came on the same day a fellow United Airlines flight travelling from San Francisco to Paris had to be diverted after the Boeing jet suffered engine problems. 

Flight 990, a Boeing 777-200, had to touchdown at Denver International Airport after the crew reported an issue with one engine. 

The plane’s journey, seen on Flightradar24, showed it heading north towards the Canadian border before it turned south towards the Colorado city. 

In a statement, United said the flight landed safely with all 273 passengers and the crew of 12 disembarking. 

Also on Friday, a United Airlines Boeing 787  flight was forced to make an emergency landing after wind shear injured passengers on board as the pilot feared he would run out of fuel.

The Newark-bound flight from Tel Aviv was diverted to New York Stewart International Airport because of reported ‘extreme turbulence’. 

There were 312 passengers on board the Boeing 787 – seven of whom were taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Another 15 of the passengers were treated on site for injuries sustained during the flight, according to New Windsor EMS.  

‘High winds’ were the cause of extreme turbulence that prompted the emergency landing. 

New Windsor EMS said the United Airlines flight was making an approach to Newark from Tel Aviv when it experienced high winds at around 6:30 pm, according to News 12 Westchester. 

Passengers on board reportedly complained of nausea and some said they had chest pains due to the turbulence. No severe injuries have been reported.

An FAA statement said, ‘United Airlines Flight 85 landed safely at New York Stewart International Airport, about 75 miles upstate of its intended destination, around 6:45 p.m. local time on Friday, March 29, after the crew reported a passenger medical emergency. 

These latest incidents involving a United Boeing planes is another hit for the beleaguered airline manufacturer as they continue to battle an ongoing safety crisis. 

The company has been hit by problems including a near-catastrophic incident in  January when a fuselage panel on a 737 MAX 9 Alaska Airlines jet blew off mid-flight.

Since then, the company has faced questions following several other potentially dangerous episodes.

Earlier this month, another United 777-200 also leaving San Francisco on it way to Osaka in Japan when its wheel came off. 

Several vehicles in the employee car parking lot were badly damaged by the falling wheel that also mangled a fence. 

The plane landed safely at LAX about 1:20 pm with no further incident and no injuries reported on the ground. 

Another Boeing plane, also operated by United Airlines, was grounded two weeks after it was found to be missing a panel after it touched down. 

The plane, a Boeing 737-824, touched down in Medford Airport in Oregon despite the missing part with no injuries reported. 

Just a few days before the plane with the missing part was grounded, another Boeing plane had to land after hydraulic fluid spewed from the landing gear midflight. 

The forced landing happened as the San Francisco-bound 777-300 embarked from Sydney, with fluid filmed leaking from its undercarriage.

Following the door plug blowing off the Alaska Airlines flight, investigators said the bolts to keep the panel in place were missing after repair work at a Boeing facility.

Federal regulators then put a limit on the production of 737s and found a series of problems after an inspection at Boeing facilities. 

The Department of Justice opened its criminal investigation into the incident, with investigators contacting passengers saying they may have been the victim of crime.

Earlier this month, roughly 50 people were treated for injuries after a Boeing 787 flying from Australia to New Zealand experienced a ‘technical event’. 

That caused the plane to plunge which jolted passengers in their seats, the company told airlines to start inspecting switches on pilots’ seats after a report said an accidental cockpit seat movement caused the incident.

Shortly before that incident, Boeing said the technical failure involving the door stemmed from something that occurred during production. 

The company said that required documents detailed the removal of a key part that failed were never created.

Due to the ongoing problems, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said he would step down at the end of the year in a management overhaul in the wake of the crisis. 

Calhoun plus the chairman of the board and the head of its commercial airlines business are all leaving. 

All of this comes after Boeing whistleblower John Barnett was found dead from in his truck in a hotel parking lot in South Carolina, seven years after retiring. 

The 62-year-old was found in his truck in a hotel parking lot in South Carolina, – seven years after he retired following a 32-year career with Boeing.

Barnett’s death came during a whistleblower suit, where he alleged under-pressure workers were deliberately fitting sub-standard parts to aircraft on the assembly line.

Barnett had alleged that second-rate parts were literally removed from scrap bins, before being fitted to planes that were being built to prevent delays.

A 2017 review by the FAA upheld some of his concerns, requiring Boeing to take action.

He had just given a deposition to Boeing’s lawyers for the case in the week before his passing, his attorney Brian Knowles said.

Barnett’s job for 32 years was overseeing production standards for the firm’s planes – standards he said were not met during his four years at the then-new plant in Charleston from 2010 to 2014. 

‘The new leadership didn’t understand processes,’ Barnett told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview in 2019 of how brass allegedly cut corners to get their then state-of-the-art 7878s out on time.

Barnett claimed he alerted superiors at the plant about his misgivings, but no action was ever taken. Boeing denied this, as well as his claims.

A 2017 review by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) went on to stand up some of Barnett’s qualms, including finding that at least 53 ‘non-conforming’ parts – as they put it – were misplaced, and considered lost.