Been told the Bus flight HKG to LHR flight very narrowly escaped landing en-route due to blocked toilets on Tues. Toilets backed up to full toilet bowls, yummy, I bet the pax enjoyed that and cannot wait to fly back on CX. Merry Xmas. A most unpleasant experience for pax and crew alike.
I am very familiar with the flight in question. All 3 left hand side toilets were blocked, but had 5 on the right hand side still working, there were about 40 pax per toilet, so well within the guidelines. At no time was there a situation of "narrowly escaped landing enroute". Troubleshooting found that a blockage occurred in the left pipe by an object (later found out it was a towel). Just before top of descent, the tank indicated full, however there is manual override to allow waste to fill the pipes. Considering most passengers were in their seats with the belt signs on, not many people were using the toilets and at no point did the toilets overflow.