During a non-life-threatening emergency, an American Airlines flight from Madrid to Dallas diverted to New York City because six of its eight bathrooms were inoperable.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), American Airlines Flight 37 diverted on October 6 because the crew reported that the Boeing 777-200 had far fewer working lavatories than usual. According to FlightAware, instead of going straight to Dallas, the plane diverted to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), the NYC area’s biggest airport.
“We have only two potties operating on board for American 37,” said a pilot on the plane in air traffic controller audio. The controller responded, “You said only two potties. Is that right?”
“That’s affirmative,” the pilot confirmed, adding that 287 passengers were onboard.
American Airlines Flight 37’s Recent ‘Pan-Pan’ Incident
American Airlines Flight 37 between Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) is usually just over 10 hours. Reportedly, the October 6 flight made an overweight landing in NYC because it still had hours of fuel in its tank, since its intended destination was Dallas. Details on what caused six unusable bathrooms on the flight have not been disclosed.
According to PEOPLE’s review of the air traffic controller audio, pilots onboard the flight are heard saying “pan-pan.” They said it to the controller on the other end of the line as the plane approached JFK. The FAA notes that declaring pan-pan three times in a row is an emergency procedure indicating an “urgency condition.” However, if a distress situation occurs, a pilot should signal that by saying “mayday.”
After spending several hours at JFK, passengers ultimately resumed their journey to Dallas and arrived there at 6:13 p.m. local time.
“The initial communication, and if considered necessary, any subsequent transmissions by an aircraft in distress should begin with the signal MAYDAY, preferably repeated three times. The signal PAN-PAN should be used in the same manner for an urgency condition,” says the FAA. “Distress communications have absolute priority over all other communications, and the word MAYDAY commands radio silence on the frequency in use. Urgency communications have priority over all other communications except distress, and the word PAN-PAN warns other stations not to interfere with urgency transmissions.”
