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Airliner Carrying 85 Plumbers Forced to Turn Around Due to Toilet Trouble

#1
Yazata Offline
A Boeing 737 airliner carrying 85 plumbers from Norway to a plumbing convention in Germany was forced to turn around and return to Oslo because the plane's toilet backed up.

Apparently the problem could only be fixed from outside and the airline didn't want to ask a plumber to step outside at 35,000 feet.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/...9.html#fmp
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#2
C C Offline
Those high standards and lucky European residents down below of today, along the routes. Air travel wasn't that considerate during WWII. All sorts of frosty stuff would tumble from the skies...

And When Nature Calls: One problem of long missions was the need to empty our bladders at least once. Most of the Fortresses had a 'piss tube' in the nose section, which was convenient for the navigator and bombardier. This consisted of a slender hose with a funnel shaped end which was fitted to an aperture in the floor. As urine was run through the tube it turned to ice and dropped like topaz coloured hail to the ground, I liked to imagine every time I urinated over Germany, my acidulous projectile would plink on some Nazi burgher's Aryan nose.

[...] Returning from a mission over Germany, my crew had the trots and took it in turn to crap in a cardboard box which was quickly jettisoned.

[...] The Lancaster, for some reason, was not equipped with piss [or relief] tube only an 'Elsan' chemical toilet a few feet forward from the rear gunner's turret. [...] It was exposed, unreliable, uncomfortable and dangerous [...]

[...] On the return flight we all were suffering from dysentery, sometimes mild sometimes severe and as a result, the forward urine canister was full and overflowing. So was the chemical toilet in the radar compartment. There was a plug-sealed tube from the flight deck floor through which smoke and signal flares could be dropped. Since we were at an altitude where we were depressurised, I left my pilots seat, got onto my knees over the whole of the deck, removed the plug, and attempted to make use of this ad hoc urinal. Unfortunately, air rising in the tube blew everything back in my face. As the plane buffeted along, I was soaked, as was the surrounding area.

The whole crew was trying to hold back the 'runs' or 'trots' so we decided to open the bomb bay doors and to take it in turns to do what needed to be done in a more or less 'bombs away' fashion. Again air turbulence in the bomb bay was not kind to us and we ended up coating every nook and cranny of the bomb bay.


From the Louis Zamperini biography, Unbroken: Louie's two proudest moments as a prankster both involved chewing gum. After Cuppernell and Phil swiped Loui's beer, Louie retaliated by sneaking out of Super Man [The name of their bomber] and jamming gum into the cockpit "piss pipe" -- the urine relief tube. [...] On another day, to get even with Cuppernell and Phil for regularly stealing his chewing gum, Louie replaced his ordinary gum with a laxative variety. Just before a long day of sea search, Cuppernell and Phil each stole three pieces, triple the standard dose. As Super Man flew over the Pacific that morning, Louie watched with delight as pilot and copilot, in great distress, made alternating dashes to the back of the plane, yelling for someone to get a toilet bag ready. On his last run, Cuppernell discovered that all the bags had been used. With nowhere else to go, he dropped his pants and hug his rear end out the waist window while four crewmen clung to him to prevent him from falling out. When the ground crew saw the results all over Super Man's tail, they were furious. "It was like an abstract painting," Louie said later.

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