NEW YORK: In a bizarre incident, a Philadelphia-bound US flight was forced to make an emergency landing after a dog defecated thrice in the centre aisle making the smelly ordeal unbearable for passengers on board.
The US Airways flight 598 was delayed for about two hours in Los Angeles and when the plane finally took off for Philadelphia, the passengers settled in for what they hoped would be a routine flight, but were woken up from their sound sleep to a horrible smell emanating from the "big dog" poop last week.
"Abou t an hour into the flight, I started smelling this terrible smell. I look up the aisle way and there's a dog pooping right in the middle of the aisle. It's a big dog, 3' to 4' tall or long, and he was just going," passenger Steve McCall told KCTV5.
The pilot announced an emergency landing in Kansas City, Missouri as the plane had run out of paper towels and the "mess" was clogging the aisle.
Passenger Chris Law took pictures and tweeted, "So the full-sized dog that's on my flight, well it did what dogs do & went to the bathroom when it felt like it smack dab in the middle of aisle."
The crew did their best to clean up service dog Truffles' mess but the smell lingered in the cabin and the dog had to go again which pushed some passengers over the edge.
"A couple of people started dry-heaving, a couple of people were throwing up," McCall said.
The crew again frantically tried to clean up the dog's mess, but ran out of paper towels, New York Daily News reported.
The pilot decided to divert to Kansas City International Airport for a pit stop for ground crews to clean up and for the canine to take a more routine potty break.
The dog's owner was truly remorseful, passengers said. Passengers re-boarded the flight and continued their journey after the mess was cleared.
The dog and its owner were re-booked on another flight.