Air India 777 returns to Chicago over clogged toilets
This incident happened on March 5, 2025, and involves Air India flight AI126, scheduled to operate from Chicago (ORD) to Delhi (DEL). The flight was operated by a 15-year-old Boeing 777-300ER with the registration code VT-ALQ.
The flight took off from O’Hare Airport on schedule, at 11:24AM, and began its roughly 14-hour journey to India. The jet flew out over Canada, the Labrador Sea, and Greenland, and then continued its Atlantic crossing. However, over four hours after departure, the jet made a 180-degree turn, and headed back toward Chicago.
That was quite a long journey, and the plane ended up landing there at 9:08PM, after a flight time of 9hr44min. That’s right, the plane flew for nearly 10 hours, only to end up back where it started. So, what was the reason the plane returned to its origin? According to the airline, it was due to “technical reasons.”
However, according to passengers, it was because the toilets onboard were clogged, and by the time the plane was passing Greenland, only one of the aircraft’s 12 toilets was working.
That’s a rough reason for a diversion, and one certainly wonders why returning to the origin was the best option in this case, especially since it required roughly five hours of backtracking. Wouldn’t it have made sense to divert to a closer airport still on the way to India, rather than returning to an outstation? Or was the concern that the crew would time out at that point, and then passengers would be stranded in a foreign country?
Air India's version of the story:
Passenger's version:
Jai Hind!
