Passengers forced to urinate in bottles after toilets fail mid-air on Virgin flight: ‘Suffered the humiliation’

(Also read: Air India faces flak after flight turned back due to clogged toilets: ‘What an embarrassment’)

According to a report by The Sun, one of the rear lavatories was already out of service before departure. Despite this, the flight proceeded as scheduled, since there was no engineering support available in Bali to resolve the issue.

Passengers forced to improvise

With no access to functioning lavatories for the final three hours of the journey, passengers had little choice but to improvise. Some resorted to urinating into bottles, while others endured the discomfort and tried to wait until the plane finally landed in Queensland.

One passenger told The Australian: “One elderly woman was unable to hold on and suffered the humiliation of wetting herself in public. Midway through the flight, every toilet failed.”

For the remaining three hours, passengers endured the ordeal, with reports of an overpowering smell spreading through the cabin as urine seeped into the floor.

Eyewitness accounts of discomfort

Travellers described the atmosphere on board as uncomfortable and undignified. “The cabin crew informed us we would need to relieve ourselves in bottles,” another passenger explained. “It was degrading and distressing, especially for elderly passengers.”

Virgin Australia issues apology

Virgin Australia later confirmed the incident and issued an apology to affected passengers. In a statement cited by the New York Post, the airline said: “A Virgin Australia flight from Denpasar to Brisbane on Thursday evening experienced an issue during the flight which affected the serviceability of the lavatories. We sincerely apologise to our guests and thank our crew for managing a challenging situation on board.”

The airline added that passengers impacted by the disruption would be provided with credit for the flight and contacted individually with further updates.