Broken Toilets Force Emergency Landing at LAX

A jet heading from Dallas to Honolulu had to divert to Los Angeles, and land with an unusually-heavy load of fuel, when three of the six on-board toilets malfunctioned Sunday.

The plane landed with five hours of fuel in its wings, prompting Los Angeles city firefighters to meet the arriving jet with emergency fire apparatus. Boeing 767s do not have ways to dump extra fuel, pilots have said, and the extra weight from the jet fuel makes such a landing unusual.

LAFD‘s battalion chief radioed in that the plane’s flaps and brakes worked normally and the plane slowed properly on Runway 25 Left, the southern- most of the four parallel runways at LAX.

There were 212 passengers and 12 crew members on American Airlines Flight 005, a scheduled nonstop from Dallas-Fort Worth to Honolulu.

An American spokeswoman in Dallas told City News Service that maintenance crews at LAX were looking into the issue, and it would take an hour or so before the flight would resume.

-- City News Service

Photo courtesy of American Airlines