• A flight from Zurich to Washington, DC, returned home after half its bathrooms stopped working.
• The airline found a replacement aircraft, so the 220 passengers were delayed less than 5 hours.
• It's the second time this month that a plumbing problem has caused a flight to nowhere.

A flight from Switzerland to Washington, DC, had to divert after half the plane's bathrooms stopped working due to a plumbing problem.

According to data from Flightradar24, Sunday's Swiss International Air Lines Flight 76 turned around over the English Channel — the arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Britain and France — about an hour into the journey.

The Airbus A330 landed back in Zurich about two and a half hours after taking off from there, becoming a so-called flight to nowhere.

An airline spokesperson told Business Insider there was a blockage in a toilet pipe. This meant all the toilets on the left-hand side of the plane were rendered unusable as they have an interconnected system.

"With 220 passengers on board, continuing the flight was unfortunately not an option," they added.

The airline's dispatch center "immediately organized a replacement aircraft with a new crew," the spokesperson said. This meant the passengers landed in Washington, DC, with a delay of just under five hours.

While flights to nowhere can be frustrating for passengers, this incident shows how returning to a hub airport can provide better solutions than continuing.

It is easier for airlines to reroute passengers, find new crew, and repair any issues at one of their hub airports than if they divert somewhere closer to the destination.

"Such a delay is of course very annoying for our passengers and we would like to apologize again for the inconvenience," the airline spokesperson said.

"In such situations, we do everything we can to get our passengers to their destination as quickly as possible," they added. "This is always our top priority."

This is the second time this month that a flight has turned around due to faulty bathrooms.

An Air India flight returned to Chicago in a nine-hour ordeal after bags, rags, and clothes had been flushed down toilets and clogged the Boeing 777's plumbing.

• A Swiss International Air Lines pilot started feeling unwell midjourney.
• The flight from Zurich to Miami then turned around over the Atlantic.
• A return flight from Florida to Switzerland was also canceled because the aircraft was diverted.

Swiss International Air Lines passengers endured a four-hour flight to nowhere after a pilot fell ill.

Two hours after Flight LX66 left Zurich for Miami on Monday, it U-turned over the Atlantic Ocean about 300 miles off the French coast, according to Flightradar24 data.

"One of the pilots did not feel fully fit after starting the flight," an airline spokesperson told Business Insider. "As a precautionary measure, the cockpit crew decided not to continue the flight and instead returned to Zurich Airport."

There were 123 passengers on board the flight, which landed back in Zurich at 2:24 p.m. local time — some four hours after departure.

The Swiss spokesperson added that the fire department was standing by, standard procedure given that the Airbus A330 was landing at a higher-than-normal weight.

The aircraft had enough fuel for a 10-hour flight but lacked a fuel-dump system.

A diverted flight is not only frustrating for the passengers on board but also can have knock-on effects on other journeys. People scheduled to fly on the same A330 from Miami to Zurich later on Monday had their flight canceled.

"We have rebooked the affected passengers onto alternative connections and would like to sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused," the airline spokesperson said.

They added that Swiss would cover expenses for passengers' hotel accommodations, taxi rides, meals, and phone calls until the next possible departure, rebook them free of charge, or cancel the trip with a full refund.

• A Swiss International Air Lines flight made an emergency landing last month.
• The Airbus A220's cabin was filled with smoke after encountering an engine problem.
• An autopsy said a flight attendant died due to hypoxic brain damage, Blick reported.

A 23-year-old Swiss International Air Lines flight attendant died due to a "severe lack of oxygen to the brain," according to an autopsy reported by Blick, Switzerland's largest newspaper.

It comes after an incident on December 23, when Swiss Flight 1885 encountered engine problems, and the cabin was filled with smoke.

The Airbus A220 was flying from Bucharest, Romania, to Zurich when it made an emergency landing in Graz, Austria.

All 74 passengers and five crew members were evacuated, 17 of whom required medical attention, the airline said.

A week later, Swiss announced that one of the flight's cabin crew members died in the hospital in Graz.

"We are devastated at our dear colleague's death," said CEO Jens Fehlinger. "His loss has left us all in the deepest shock and grief. Our thoughts are with his family, whose pain we cannot imagine."

Blick reported that the public prosecutor's office in Graz has launched an investigation into the flight attendant's death.

A spokesperson told the newspaper that a Friday autopsy found the provisional cause of death to be hypoxic brain damage and cerebral edema, meaning brain swelling.

"The brain was massively damaged by a severe lack of oxygen, and the young flight attendant died of it in the intensive care unit," the spokesperson told Blick.

"We are also looking into the role played by the respiratory mask that the flight attendant was wearing," he added.

The Graz public prosecutor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider.

Swiss said the investigation's initial findings point to a problem in one of the plane's Pratt & Whitney engines.

"We have no indication that the safety of the aircraft type is in question," it added.

• A flight attendant working for Swiss Air has died after a plane's cabin filled with smoke mid-flight.
• On December 23, a flight from Bucharest to Zurich diverted due to engine issues and smoke.
• The staff member, who hasn't been named, died around a week after being taken to hospital.

A young Swiss International Air Lines flight attendant died after smoke started to fill the cabin and cockpit.

The flight — operating from Bucharest in Romania to Switzerland's Zurich on December 23 — made an emergency diversion to Graz in southern Austria after engine problems led smoke to spread through the plane, according to a press release by the airline.

The member of staff, who has not been named publicly, was airlifted to a hospital in Graz, where he was put into intensive care. He died on Monday, December 30.

"We are devastated at our dear colleague's death," Swiss CEO Jens Fehlinger said in a statement.

"We stand with one another at this truly difficult time; and we will be doing our utmost, together with the relevant authorities, to determine the causes involved," Oliver Buchhofer, the airline's chief operating officer added.

"We have many questions, and we want them answered," he added.

All 74 passengers on board the Airbus A220 were evacuated, and twelve received medical attention. All five crew members were placed under medical care.

"Our teams of experts are working hard over the festive season to evaluate all the facts and findings available, and are in close contact with the authorities," the airline said in a statement about the investigations into the incident.

The focus of the investigation is on the mechanical parts of the aircraft — like the engine — and the protective breathing equipment available to the cabin crew.

SWISS announced it was working with the relevant authorities, the engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, and the aircraft manufacturer Airbus.

"The initial findings point to a technical problem in one of the engines," it said in the press release, but the cause of the smoke has not yet been conclusively determined.

A special flight from Graz to Zurich was organized on the morning of Christmas Eve to get passengers to their destination.

• Two passengers engaged in "intimate acts" on a Swiss International flight from Bangkok to Zurich.
• A flight crew member took a video of the incident from a monitor in the cockpit.
• Swiss said the crew should have intervened immediately, and that it was investigating.

Airline crew members are under investigation after a video of two passengers on a Swiss International Air Lines flight emerged on social media.

The incident took place last Friday on a flight from Bangkok and Zurich, an airline spokesperson told Business Insider.

The spokesperson said two passengers were in the front galley of the Boeing 777 near the flight deck, where a camera is located that lets pilots carry out checks before opening the cockpit door.

From a screen on the flight deck, the couple were "observed engaging in intimate acts" while a crew member recorded them on a phone.

Footage of the couple then began circulating on WhatsApp and was obtained by the Swiss newspaper 20 Minuten, which first reported the story.

The airline said it expected the crew to intervene immediately and found it "intolerable" that the passengers were filmed and commented on instead. Disciplinary action against the crew members was being considered.

"Filming people without their clear consent and sharing these recordings is contrary to our guidelines and values," the Swiss spokesperson said.

"The behavior of the passengers in question was inappropriate — therefore, our employees should have acted in line with our protocols and intervened immediately," they added. "Why the crew did not act accordingly is the subject of the ongoing investigation."

Among other things, the airline plans to increase employee education and training on such topics to help avoid similar incidents in the future.