By Maggy Wolanske
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DENVER (KMGH) — While flying can come with surprises, one Colorado family experienced something far worse than delays: the smells of sewage filled their plane when they boarded a Turkish Airlines flight out of Denver International Airport.
Farhung Bharucha was traveling with his wife and four kids for an annual summer vacation to India. He said the boarding time was pushed back with no explanation as to why. After an hour of waiting, Bharucha said his wife asked a gate agent what was happening.
“They said that one of the toilets is leaking and it smells really bad and it’s wet everywhere, there is sewage water, and so they are just trying to get that cleaned up,” Bharucha explained.
As they continued to wait at the gate, there was no “official communication” until the airline sent out a message saying the flight was delayed “due to an act of God,” according to Bharucha.
“Finally they boarded us at about 9:45 p.m. so our plane was supposed to take off at 8:15 p.m.,” said Bharucha. “We boarded at 9:45 p.m. and my seat is 9C, which is right in front of the lavatory, that was leaking and I could see the carpet was wet all around my feet and it it smelled like toilet, sewage water.”
While on the plane, Bharucha described passengers in complete disbelief over the smell and what was happening.
“Then the plane started taxiing, and the lavatory started leaking actively at that time,” said Bharucha. “So you could actually see brown-color water coming out of it into the hallway, where they where they start prepping the food for the flight. I think finally word got out when people started like smelling and making faces.”
Thankfully, he said, the pilot turned the plane around and they did not have to experience this leaking toilet and the smells that came with it on an international flight. The Bharucha family stayed at a nearby hotel thinking they would be booked on the next flight out.
“About 12:30 a.m., we got our bags. At about 1 a.m., we checked into the Westin next to DIA, after that they just didn’t book us. They first booked us for May 31, then for June 1, and then finally for June 2. All of this happened in the span of about 30 minutes and we were like, no we booked our leave, we want to get out earlier,” Bharucha said.
Several days and hotel nights later, the Bharucha family landed in Istanbul on Wednesday as part of their layover. He expressed his frustration towards the airline for shrugging off responsibility and not fixing the technical issue.
“I just did some research thinking that maybe I’m being unrealistic, but all the research points are no, this is not an act of God, nor is this an uncontrollable event. This is a technical issue that the plane, the airline, should have managed a lot better,” Bharucha said.
Aviation expert, Steve Cowell, flew 38 years professionally and teaches aviation safety risk management. He explained how airplane bathrooms operate and are maintained in between flights.
“When you go to the lavatory, essentially all of the waste goes into this big holding tank, it is filled with a chemical as well as, of course, a lot of water,” he said. “When the plane comes in to the gate, one of the service items is to service the lavatory. They’ll hook a hose up to remove the waste products, and another hose to put in new water and new chemical.”
Having decades of experience flying, Cowell explained a leaky bathroom is very rare and is an issue between the airline and the ground service personnel.
“What the airline should have done was work with their ground service personnel, and then they should have called in a biohazard team to make sure that the airplane was not only clear of any biohazard that might have flowed onto the floor, such as sewage, but also, you know, sanitized the airplane and gotten rid of the smell before they even would have had any passengers on board,” Cowell said.
Ultimately, he said the responsibility falls on Turkish Airlines.
“It’s incredibly arrogant for an airline to think that they’re going to board a couple hundred passengers on an airplane, they’re going to be sitting there for hours on end on an international flight smelling toilet fluid. That’s ridiculous. This airline is clearly responsible for the problem and clearly responsible for the contractor that they engaged to service their toilets,” Cowell said.
Denver7 reached out to Turkish Airlines but did not hear back by the time of publication.
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