jwlowry

LMAO!

jwlowry

Thanks! God bless you.

michaelw9

Well, first of all, let me say that the situation that occured is highly disgusting, and I hope it never happens again. They [all airlines] need to take a really hard look at ways to prevent incidents such as these from happening.

As for "becoming ill", my degree is in microbiology, so I'll share my opinions/thoughts:

-- urine is 100% sterile, and can not cause illness whatsoever (even if drank, which some people actually claim is a health benefit); except for people with UTIs or blood in it; and actually being exposed to an open wound or sore

-- just for reference as well, even if some amount of pathogenic bacteria (or viruses, or even HIV) enter an open sore, and get into your blood, the one-time risk of becoming infected/catching something is also low

-- when flying and in close proximity to a large number of people in a plane, you are exposed to many viruses and bacteria that are capable of transmission just by breathing. You can't breath in fecal matter.

-- unless you have an open wound, and/or ingest orally, large amounts of fecal matter, it probably won't cause illness anyway. Again, even if it were ingested orally and/or in an open wound.

-- small amounts of fecal matter are often found in anything and ingested daily by the majority of the population. Even rat fecal matter in your flour (there's a ppm allowance)

-- getting anything on intact skin won't allow bacteria to enter your blood stream

-- the vast majority of bacteria in fecal matter is harmless and would not make you ill anyway, even if ingested. The risk is very low. This would be E. coli, which is counted in the lab by CFUs, to measure the amount of fecal matter in a substance (pond, ocean, whatever); the vast majority of these strains are not pathogenic either. There could be some other parasites or what not, but you'd have to literally be playing with the raw sewage [AND actually get ill]

-- the most illness that almost anyone could claim would be mental, from having to deal with the smell/stress/anxiety of becoming ill. I would say the probability of someone getting sick *specifically* because of this incident is lower than a meteor hitting CO's headquarters in Houston.

Crap happens, and thankfully from what I've read, most people on the flight understood it and dealt with it. There's really no need for "millions" of dollars of lawsuits. It was a pain in the butt to deal with, for sure, but not really a public health risk of extremes that some arbitrarily assume.

golakers32

Continental should refund every passenger ALL of their money for this flight. There are operation problems deserving of vouchers and then there are ....-filled flights from hell that border on tortious intentional infliction of emotional distress.

If Continental is the customer service powerhouse that many claim, then they should step up and refund 100% for this.

CO757

Faster than UA did after stranding their "customers" in Wyoming following the big Denver snow storm...right???

CLEHillbilly

Watching Leno tonight...

He called this a new TV show,"Survivor...Continental Airlines"

LOL

knit-in

Can't think of these two being equal circs. Weather issues are the easiest to wash hands off. Aisles of potty-slush (poetic license taken), not so easy to rid oneself of.

knit-in

Apparently, there are more germs on the keyboard of a public computer terminal than on your office's potty seat. Guess so many of the health issues we face in our daily existance are realted more to our perception than to any real threat. Not to say that I'd treat being on this particular flight in question as a ".... happens" situation.

Yeah and I applaud any statement regarding coach class seat pitch being injurious to health. Its inhuman, particularly on log int'l flights (or is that stating the obvious)

coairtul

Just FYI this is what caused the malfunction. This was published in the Daily news update to all Continental co-workers.

Obstruction disrupts flight

Reports of a faulty lavatory on flight 71 from Amsterdam (AMS) to EWR have been in the media. The June 13 flight was diverted to Shannon, Ireland (SNN), and repairs were made. The lavatory repair work in SNN indicated good flow in the lavatory system. During the flight from SNN to EWR, the problem developed again. Upon landing in EWR, it was determined that someone had flushed latex gloves into the lavatory system, which caused the obstruction. There is signage posted in the onboard restrooms advising that foreign objects are not to be discarded in the lavatory system. Occasionally, these instructions are overlooked.

CO deeply regrets the serious inconvenience to its customers and is apologizing to them and compensating them for the poor conditions on the flight as well as the diversion and delay.

flyzabit

****
Here's how -- (From CO):

"Obstruction disrupts flight

Reports of a faulty lavatory on flight 71 from Amsterdam (AMS) to EWR have been in the media. The June 13 flight was diverted to Shannon, Ireland (SNN), and repairs were made. The lavatory repair work in SNN indicated good flow in the lavatory system. During the flight from SNN to EWR, the problem developed again. Upon landing in EWR, it was determined that someone had flushed latex gloves into the lavatory system, which caused the obstruction. There is signage posted in the onboard restrooms advising that foreign objects are not to be discarded in the lavatory system. Occasionally, these instructions are overlooked.

CO deeply regrets the serious inconvenience to its customers and is apologizing to them and compensating them for the poor conditions on the flight as well as the diversion and delay."

KosraeTV

I wonder what if anything was found in Shannon?

What are the chances that the toilet backs up twice, on the same plane with the same passengers? I mean if they cleared the obstruction in Shannon and it backs up again then doesn't it almost sound like there is a possibility that someone flushed the gloves on purpose?

But atleast now, thanks to CO's own report, we all know what to flush to ruin a plane trip.

pptp

No, the vacuum toilets don't use the blue stuff. They are flushed with a small amount of fresh water.

pbarnette

Either they missed it the first time when they gave the all clear, or they are trying to absolve themselves from blame. Read the entire press release from CO, again, especially the following:

"Occasionally, these instructions are overlooked.

CO deeply regrets the serious inconvenience to its customers and is apologizing to them and compensating them for the poor conditions on the flight as well as the diversion and delay."

Nowhere does CO accept responsibility for anything. They deeply regret... Someone else overlooked their instructions... Excuse me if I am not overly enthusiastic about the response.

And, I know this will bring out all those who feel that I bash CO too much, but CO's response is exactly the sort of response that really grinds my gears. I mean, everyone congratulates CO for being better than UA or AA or DL (including in this thread!), but that bar is set ridiculously low. CO had the opportunity to deal with this issue head-on, apologize, and accept responsibility. They chose to blame rubber gloves. Nice to see that we have become so desensitized to notions of responsibility that many want to give CO a free pass. Truman would be proud.

IMHO, good service is really defined by how one responds in situations like this, and CO chose the coward's way out. Vouchers?!? How about a refund? For everyone. When the plane landed. And, I don't think it makes a difference whether there was blue or brown liquid; in the aisles or confined to the toilets - 2 semi-working toilets, no TP, and instructions to watch liquid and food consumption on a TATL flight sounds to me like CO failed to adequately honor the implied contract they entered into when they sold the ticket.

ContinentalFan

The real story--or at least the new story--here is Continental's inaction. They should have been all over this one from the get go.

ContinentalFan

I might pitch an ad concept to jetBlue; three hours in the snow or three hours swimming in sewage--you decide. The attention is off jetBlue for a while.