Passengers Say Bathroom Breakdown Caused Virgin Australia Flight To Turn Back

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Some passengers on-board a transpacific flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Sydney say they endured a bathroom breakdown this weekend.

The incident occurred on a Virgin Australia on Sunday.

A passenger told KCAL9's Laurie Perez that the flight was only a few minutes in when he heard a "pop."

He said the cabin was then filled with the worst kind of stench. Others took to Twitter to describe the incident.

Three hours in, the pilot eventually turned the plane around.

"It was a vile smell. It smelled like chemicals, excuse me, mixed with vomit and excrement and very acidic," John Collins, a passenger, told Perez in a phone call from Australia Tuesday night.

Collins says a stream of liquid buckled into the carpeting.

He took a dim shot of the mess and of the bathrooms that had been cordoned off.

Other passengers posted selfies wearing masks they say flight attendants handed out.

"During the entire flight, they had to open the lavatory door and flush the toilet every 30 seconds for 6 hours," Collins explains.

In a statement, Virgin Australia denied any problems with the toilets stating, "Reports of human waste in the aisles are incorrect. The safety of the aircraft was never in question."

The statement continued, "Reports of passengers being handed face masks is incorrect. The water leakage posed absolutely no threat to passengers."

Virgin Australia says the problem was actually with the sinks in the bathrooms and not the toilets. They claim an object got caught in a pipe and caused a leakage.

The pilot returned, they said, as a precaution so the plane could be fixed.

The passengers were placed in lodging overnight and offered compensation.

They were subsequently flown to Australia on the same plane.