B737-800
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Time Pressure; Situational Awareness; Physiological - Other; Communication Breakdown; Workload
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Flight Crew Diverted; Flight Crew Landed As Precaution; General Maintenance Action; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Aircraft; Company Policy
At gate; after lav system did not service properly; we deplaned as Maintenance said they had not discovered why the lav system indicated full but was actually empty. One hour later Maintenance decided to MEL the lav waste level indicator and we began boarding again. With doors closed and ready to push 'A' Flight Attendant reported seat 9E slowly reclined and would not stay upright. With Maintenance back on board and unable to fix seat; another MEL was added resulting in the nonrev mother and her three children being forced off the full flight. Pushed 2:25 hours late. 1 hour 29 into flight; 3:40 from our destination. Flight attendants reported Lav Inop Light illuminated on Aft Flight Attendant Panel and all lavs would not flush. Dispatcher wanted us to press on to our destination. With lines to the lavs and urine and feces filling all lav bowls we turned back and preferred our departure airport as it was closer; but Dispatch said go to an airport with more maintenance. Landed after 4:18 block hours with all lavs filled to the brim with urine and feces. I had to urinate in an aft lav sink prior to top of descent. We were put up at the hotel on a reduced rest with all the irate passengers from our flight after their 2:25 delayed flight with toilets filled to the brim with urine and fecal matter and the subsequent divert back taking 4:18. Once inside the terminal an irate passenger started yelling at the Captain; 'Shame on you! Shame on you for promising to get us to our destination and that we were in a good working airplane!' Upon arriving at the hotel there were passengers lined up in the lobby and we could not get to our rooms without being questioned in the elevators about the last awful six plus hours. There was no food available at the hotel after 9pm 'due to the economy' and the air conditioning system in room could not keep a constant temperature resulting in me waking up three times throughout the shortened time I had in my hotel room. A Flight Attendant complained to me that there was no way she was walking to the only open establishment for food (a sushi restaurant) three blocks away after dark with the homicide that occurred there three months ago only to be grilled by irate passengers. Three things really need to be addressed here. One; dispatchers need to realize that we are not in a nice warm room with a spacious and clean working bathroom right down the hall; and there are over 150 of us up here for hours at a time. Also; they need to realize we do not have SATCOM; so when they send a release via ACARS it can take up to an hour; sometimes more; for us to receive it; if at all. Second; it is totally unacceptable to be lodged in the same hotel as irate passengers from the same flight and having to be confined to your room without room service when so many more hotel options are available; actually offer food and are sanitary and safe. Recommend creating a contingency plan for canceled flights that ensures the mob and flight crew are not staying at the same hotel. This will help diffuse the tension during check-in; not upset the passengers (further) and not put the crew in an even more stressful situation. And finally; it is absolutely disgraceful that we are still forced to stay in such an unsanitary; unsafe hotel with three strip clubs; transients; dumpsters; syringes; liquor stores all on the same block less than 150 yards from the front door; add to that a homicide three months ago; no food available in the evening in the hotel; continued noise complaints and rooms consistently having hair and dirt in the sheets. While this hotel property and the surrounding area were probably nice in the 80's; neighborhoods do change and with it comes decay. Simple; it is undeniably low rent; strip clubs; pawn shops; massage parlors; smoke shops; liquor stores; filthy alleys and the people that frequent these types of businesses. These are not job perks I am addressing; but duties; requirements and conditions that impact how wesafely perform our job.
A B737-800's lavatory flush system failed in flight so the Captain elected to divert because the lavatories were overflowing and they were over three hours from their destination. The Crew was put into a hotel with irate passengers.