Cathay launches loo sticker campaign to stop its flight service going down the toilet

Cathay Pacific is placing warning stickers on the toilets of its entire fleet in an effort to stop passengers flushing away items the airline believes are responsible for blockages in lavatories on its Airbuses.

The step comes as maintenance teams clean out the toilet systems in 63 passenger planes after blocked toilets forced a flight from Riyadh to Hong Kong last month into a stop in Mumbai and an 18-hour delay.

The stickers - on the inner and outer lid of every aircraft toilet - show pictures of towels, cups, containers, napkins, sick bags and other items beneath a sign in English and Chinese warning: 'These items will choke the toilet. Please dispose of them in the waste bin.'

Meanwhile, investigations into the cause of the blockages, which affected three flights in the space of 11 days, suggest first-class passengers may be partly to blame by throwing fluffy hand towels down the bowls.

The towels have now been removed from first-class toilets and replaced with paper towels at least until the end of the lavatory cleaning operation at the end of the month, a memo sent to cabin crew said.

The South China Morning Post reported last week how an Airbus flying from Riyadh on November 17 with 278 passengers was forced to divert to Mumbai when flight attendants discovered after take-off that none of the 10 toilets on board were working.

Two other Airbus flights - one from Rome on November 9 and another from Dubai on November 19 - had to restrict passenger numbers to fewer than 240 when they discovered before take-off the toilets on one side of the plane were not working.