Now this was a crappy flight.
A JetBlue flight from Philadelphia to Boston was grounded for hours Saturday because staff were “not willing to remove” poop clogging a busted toilet, forcing travelers to deplane and eventually rebook, according to a passenger on board.
Things went down the drain for passengers on JetBlue Flight 260 — scheduled to depart Philadelphia International Airport at 8:40 a.m. for Boston — when staff announced the aircraft could not take off because feces were lodged in a malfunctioning bathroom, the eyewitness said.
“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,” Hilary Coulter, a Philadelphia resident traveling to see family in Boston, told The Post.
Passengers had already been sitting on the aircraft for about an hour when the announcement came, Coulter said.
After deplaning around mid-morning, travelers were repeatedly told 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,” she said.
By around noon, gate agents made a blunt announcement over the loudspeaker.
“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,” she said.
The disclosure left passengers stunned.
“Everybody was like, ‘what?’” Coulter said. “Everyone couldn’t quite figure out what was going on.”
At least two passengers offered to clean the toilet themselves if it meant the flight could leave, she said, including one traveler repeatedly raising a stink at the gate desk.
“He went up and said … ‘I will clean it if it means we can take off,’” Coulter said. “They turned him away.”
The flight remained in limbo through the early afternoon as delays were pushed back in half-hour increments.
JetBlue ultimately gave passengers the option to cancel for a refund or rebook on another flight, she said.
Coulter chose to switch flights, though her travel troubles continued after her replacement flight was later delayed due to weather in Boston.
The original JetBlue flight was officially canceled around 2 p.m., according to Coulter, hours after it was supposed to land.
The incident disrupted plans for multiple travelers, including those with connecting flights.
“My dad was already at the cell phone lot waiting to pick me up by the time we had to get off the plane,” Coulter said.
JetBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The gross delay comes amongst a string of recent poop-related airline incidents.
Other examples include a January Philippine Airlines flight where crew members were forced to manually remove waste midair after a toilet malfunction and a Delta passenger who said they endured a cross-country flight seated next to visible feces smeared on a seat in November.
