A flight from Gran Canaria to Manchester had to be diverted so that passengers could go to the toilet.
The Jet2 plane took off around an hour late from Las Palmas airport at 5.03pm UK time on Thursday.
The Airbus A321 had a normal flight pattern to begin with, heading over the Atlantic towards southern Portugal and the west of Spain.
However, just before it reached the Bay of Biscay on Spain’s northern coast the plane, carrying about 200 passengers, turned sharply east and landed in Bilbao.
Air monitoring site Flight Emergency tweeted that the flight had been diverted at 8.31pm, saying: “Jet2 flight LS782 en route to Manchester from Gran Canaria has just diverted to Bilbao due to the toilets being broken on board and to allow passengers off to use the toilet.”
The flight landed at 7.11pm and remained on the ground for over two hours, eventually departing at 9.20pm.
Flight Emergency tweeted “Bladders emptied, LS782 is back on its way”, at 9.34pm as the flight once again headed for Manchester.
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The plane finally touched down at 11.01pm, a delay of over two hours.
Unfortunately for the passengers, no compensation is payable to them under European air rights rules.
However, the unplanned excursion to Bilbao will have cost Jet2 thousands in fuel costs and extra landing fees.
A spokesperson for Jet2.com said: “Flight LS782 from Gran Canaria to Manchester was diverted to Bilbao yesterday so that the toilet tank could be emptied.
“Customers remained onboard, before the flight took off again to Manchester.
“As an award-winning airline, the comfort and well-being of our customers is of paramount importance to us, however we apologise if this caused any inconvenience.”
