Frustrated passengers onboard a budget airline were filmed groaning in unison when their flight to London was postponed for a third time — this time because someone had defecated on the bathroom floor.
Video obtained by the Post shows the pilot telling passengers onboard the easyJet flight from the Spanish island of Tenerife on Saturday that someone found it “rather entertaining… to defecate on the front toilet, so now we’re staying the night here.
“We’re now going to get everyone off… and organize hotels, then we’ll fly back tomorrow morning,” the pilot tells passengers, who could be seen groaning as they get up out of their seats.
The announcement came after flight EZY8054 had already faced a number of delays, one passenger told the Daily Mail.
It was scheduled to depart from Tenerife at 8:05 p.m. on October 15, and arrive in the UK at 12:20 a.m. the next day.
But before the plane was even scheduled to depart, airline officials offered those onboard EZY8054 a nearly $610 voucher to switch flights, because the plane was too small to accommodate all those who had bought tickets, according to the Mail.
When nobody would take the vouchers, the passenger said, easyJet “had to remove 10 people from the plane, which caused lots of arguing, and that literally took two hours.”
“Once they got those 10 people off, the plane was heavy because we were at full capacity,” the passenger continued. “So then, they were randomly putting our luggage on other flights to Gatwick [London’s airport], and that took hours again.”
It was only after the situation was finally resolved that the pilot announced the flight had been canceled, the passenger claimed.
With all the passengers forced to spend another night in Tenerife, passengers said easyJet was unable to provide everyone with hotel accommodations.
A statement on its website regarding the flight tracking reportedly said: “Due to extremely high demand, unfortunately we’re unable to find hotel rooms in the area.
“If you need a hotel room and are able to make your own arrangements, we’ll refund the cost of a reasonably priced room, meals and travel costs to and from your hotel. In this case, we ask that you look for accommodations that are three stars or equivalent.”
Some passengers decided to take their frustrations out on social media, with one person tweeting: “Real good of @easyJet to delay the flight 3.5 hours with 0 communication, then decide to cancel it altogether because someone took a s–t on the toilet floor.
“Quite literally couldn’t make this s–t up.”
Another said, “So, we’ve been given the excuse of a toilet being defecated in for the reason for a CANCELED flight?!”
“@easyJet this is UNACCEPTABLE!! Your customer care is ATROCIOUS. 100s of passengers left stranded in the airport terminal! Do something!”
The passenger who spoke to Daily Mail also said the “whole incident was handled really poorly because it could have genuinely been an accident.
“We had loads of issues with our flight — so someone could have literally just accidentally s-t themselves.”
A spokesperson for EasyJet later confirmed the situation in a statement to The Independent.
“EasyJet can confirm that Flight EZY8054 from Tenerife to London Gatwick on 15 October was initially delayed while some bags were offloaded to be carried on the next available flight for safety reasons, due to the aircraft being overweight,” the statement said.
“The flight was subsequently delayed overnight due to the aircraft requiring additional cleaning,” it added.
“We provided hotel accommodations for all customers, however, as there was limited nearby hotel availability in the area, we also advised any customers who booked their own that they will be reimbursed.”
“The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority, and while this was outside of our control, we would like to apologize for the inconvenience caused.”