A leaking bathroom sink can be a nuisance at home. But when it happens thousands of feet in the air, with nowhere to escape the mess, it can quickly turn into an emergency. Passengers aboard a Frontier Airlines flight from Denver to Detroit experienced just that on Wednesday, when a burst bathroom faucet flooded the aircraft’s cabin and forced the pilots to divert to Chicago.According to a post by The New York Post, Frontier Airlines Flight 3566 was travelling to Detroit when the sink in its forward lavatory reportedly sprang a leak. Water began spilling across the floor and flowing down the aisle, soaking the cabin.Concerned that the water could reach the aircraft’s electronic systems, the pilots declared an emergency and requested permission to land at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.“Mayday, mayday, mayday,” a pilot told air traffic controllers, according to audio broadcast by LiveATC.net.Explaining the situation, the pilot said: “We’d like to declare an emergency, our forward lav sink has sprung a leak, and it’s spraying so much water that it’s flooding the entire cabin area in the back, and we are worried about electronics.”The crew then requested a diversion to Chicago O’Hare instead of continuing to Detroit.
Video shows water flooding aircraft aisle
Footage recorded by a passenger and obtained by ABC7 showed water spreading across the aircraft’s aisle, leaving a large section of the cabin floor soaked.Images shared by Keegan Morris on Facebook also showed water leaking from the bathroom area and pooling on the floor.The visuals captured the extent of the flooding inside the aircraft, which prompted the pilots to seek an emergency landing over concerns about water reaching the plane’s electronics.