JetBlue Operates Four Hour Flight Without A Restroom: Wet Pants And Desperate Faces

There were wet pants and faces of desperation on the 3 hour 50 minute flight from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to Boston.

Customers were told before the flight was delayed that they wouldn't be able to board. One passenger says they were going to urinate in the airport corridor after the plane landed.

[M]any could not bear the desperation, reflected in the faces of elderly passengers, children and women, and wet their pants.

The news reports of this flight are incorrect, and the passengers used the lavs.

We’ve checked with our maintenance team, flight and inflight teams and have determined all lavatories were operable on flight 1830 with service from Santo Domingo to Boston Saturday. We are not sure where this report or misunderstanding started, but crew confirm that customers were using the lavatories throughout the flight.

The first airline to operate a flight without a working lavatory was JetBlue. American Airlines has a flight from New York to Chicago. Do airlines have to cancel the flight and inconvenient everyone, or do they have to fly without basic services but not compromising safety?

If a maintenance delay alone won't fix things, then the right choice would be to offer customers a choice between flying without a lavatory and getting a product they purchased.

When the lavatories stop working on an overwater flight is a little tougher. The Kona flight of American Airlines was the one that got stopped up. Customers were told to drink from a bottle.

"What do you mean I have to pee in a bag?" Cellphone video taken aboard an American Airlines flight from Arizona to Hawaii last week appears to show a flight attendant telling a passenger that they should urinate in a plastic bag: https://t.co/anC6N6HY7Q pic.twitter.com/tud3rKzXji

— NBC10 Philadelphia (@NBCPhiladelphia) September 6, 2018

The American Airlines flight to London was diverted when four of the plane's lavatories stopped working. The flight attendants preferred not to work the flight.

The next day, the flight from Santo Domingo to Boston was delayed over four hours.

Would you take a flight with no working bathroom? How long is too long?