A BOEING Pilot was forced to make a return to the airport after a foul smell from a broken toilet filled the entire cabin.
United Airlines flight 59, scheduled to reach San Francisco, circled over the North Sea before getting back to the Frankfurt airport.
Soon after taking off from Frankfurt, passengers onboard the aircraft reported a "foul" smell coming from the toilets.
After an inspection, the cabin crew found that one of the toilets in the seven-year-old plane was defective, the Bild reports.
Passengers also reported that the contents of the waste tank overflowed and entered the cabin, making the situation worse.
The aircraft apparently made contact with the ground engineers, hoping they could help fix the problem, while the aircraft kept circling over the North Sea.
After the technicians could not find a solution for the ongoing flight, the pilots of the Boeing 777 decided to make a return to Frankfurt airport, saving the passengers from a traumatic experience.
A spokesperson for United Airlines told The Sun: "On Friday, March 29, United Flight 59 returned to Frankfurt following a maintenance issue with one of the aircraft’s lavatories."
The passengers were provided with hotel accommodations overnight in Frankfurt - and were rebooked on a different flight to San Francisco the next day, the spokesperson added. The aircraft reportedly hit "high winds" while on approach to Newark Liberty International Airport and had to abort landing at the airport.
The flight, from Tel Aviv, was diverted north to the New York Stewart International Airport.
People onboard the flight were said to have complained of nausea and chest pains due to the turbulence.