Clogged Toilet Grounds JetBlue Flight for Hours As Staff Refuse to Remove the Feces

A JetBlue flight scheduled to fly from Philadelphia to Boston was stuck on the tarmac for hours Saturday as staff refused to remove feces that clogged the aircraft’s toilet. This forced passengers to deplane and rebook, according to a passenger on board. 

Clogged Toilet

JetBlue Flight 260, scheduled to depart from Philadelphia to Boston at 8:40 a.m., could not take off after staff reported that the toilet was clogged. 

According to Philadelphia resident and passenger, Hilary Coulter, “We boarded as normal … and then they told us there was a mechanical issue with the bathrooms and that we had to get off the plane.” 

Passengers had already been sitting on the plane for about an hour when the staff announced the clogged toilet, Coulter said.

After deplaning, passengers were informed that the issue would be resolved shortly. “They said it was gonna be like, 15 to 20 minutes. And then they said 15 to 20 minutes more,” according to Coulter. 

Staff Not Willing to Remove the Feces

By noon, the gate agents announced what happened. She said, “They told us the reason was that there were feces in the toilet that was broken on the plane, and that the staff was not willing to remove the feces, and we couldn’t fly with the feces in the toilet.” 

After the announcement, passengers were stunned. Coulter said, “Everyone couldn’t quite figure out what was going on.” 

At least two passengers volunteered to remove the feces from the toilet if it meant the flight could take off. However, she said that the staff turned them away. 

The flight kept getting delayed in 30-minute increments until early afternoon. By around 2 p.m, JetBlue offered passengers the option to either cancel the flight for a refund or rebook. Coulter chose another flight but was still delayed due to the weather in Boston. 

The delay disrupted the plans of many travelers including those with connecting flights. JetBlue has no comment yet on the incident. 

Poop-Related Airline Mishaps

This was not the only feces-related airline incident recently. Another example was a Philippine Airlines flight last month, during which crew members manually removed the waste midair. And last November, a Delta passenger said that a seat was smeared with feces in November during a cross country flight.