Toilet Problems Divert Planes Shockingly Often

So here's a terrible reason for not arriving at your destination: Air India diverted a plane when its toilets clogged over the weekend. The flight from Delhi to Frankfurt, AI 121, had to return to the airport three hours after it took off when it turned out that each of the four toilets aboard turned out to be clogged.

No, really. An official with the airline told The Times of India the eight-hour flight had no choice but to turn around.

The flushes were unserviceable so the plane had to return to Delhi. The passengers could not board another aircraft since night curfew in Frankfurt would have kicked in by the time the alternate plane would have reached there.

But wait, this has happened before! On an Air India flight, no less, just a few months ago, the official said. Guess why?

Everything made available to passengers for free was found flushed down the toilet. Dozens of small blankets and pillows, items in overnight pouches such as socks, slippers and towels were flushed down.

Normal. And if you're wondering whether there's an epidemic of flights being diverted thanks to less-than-sanitary situations, you may have a point. This seems to happen with alarming frequency. We rounded up some examples for you.

1. The Flight Diverted When a Dog Pooped in the Aisle...Three Times

A big dog (not the cute pug pictured) probably felt pretty bad when it diverted an entire plane full of people after the dog pooped in the aisle not once, not twice, but three times. The US Airways flight from Los Angeles to Philadelphia had to land in Kansas City on May 28 when a full-size dog aboard couldn't hold it and passengers started getting sick from the odor.

2. An Arsonist in the Toilets

A February Etihad flight between Melbourne, Australia and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates had to make an emergency stop in Jakarta after an arsonist kept setting fires in the bathrooms and the cabin filled up with smoke. Repeatedly.

3. "Inoperative" Toilets on Emirates

Toilets that weren't "properly serviced" — read: emptied — caused an Emirates flight from Washington, D.C. to Dubai to be diverted to Iceland for a tune-up in March. The toilets were reportedly "inoperative."

4. More Broken Toilets between San Francisco and Shanghai

No, seriously, how many times does this have to happen before airlines start tunin' up their toilets? Broken lavatories on a March 2012 United Airlines flight between San Francisco and Shanghai left passengers diverted to — and stranded in — Anchorage, Alaska. For two days.

5. Wait, What Got Flushed Down the Toilet?

Whoops. A suspicious package flushed down the toilet on a February Indigo flight from Singapore to Chennai, India caused the flight to divert to Malaysia for an emergency landing. But at least this time there was something good down there: Three gold bars. Maybe the airline used them to compensate its disgruntled passengers.