Airline pilot explains where your poo goes when you flush it on a plane

Sometimes, holding in your number two just isn’t an option - particularly when you're on a plane.

There is no saving someone who absolutely needs to take care of their business when they’re 37,000ft in the air, and it’s one of those rights of passage that just needs to happen.

Unless you're Andre the Giant who left passengers 'gagging and crying' after taking the 'world’s biggest poo' mid-flight.

But what happens when you go to the toilet on an aeroplane?

Not, the process of going to the toilet - we’re all pretty clued up on that.

Where does your poo go when you flush it on a plane?

While many believe that it drops out of the plane like chocolate rain, that’s quite a stretch from the truth.

There’s no way you’re going to be walking down the road and suddenly get thrown to the floor as a tsunami of sh*t is pelleted at you.

What actually happens is that it’s all flushed away with the plumbing.

This then takes any excrement to specialised sealed compartments at the back of the aircraft.

So, that means there’s absolutely no reason for you to run for cover if a plane is overhead.

According to TikTok influencer and pilot Garrett Ray, this can happen up to a thousand times on a Boeing 747 during a long-haul flight - which perhaps explains why there’s always a queue.

If you are still curious about what is involved in taking a leak mid-flight, the US pilot also revealed that over 1,211 litres (320 gallons) of waste can be generated during that time.

When you’ve reached your final destination, the waste is then carefully pumped from the plane using a pipe attached to a port.

This is done by airport staff, usually before the plane is able to take flight again.

However, there are, of course, instances where things don’t always go to plan with the high-altitude excrement.

In fact, there is a particularly weird phenomenon known as ‘blue ice’ which can occur on some flights.

Named after the colour of the disinfectant, this is where frozen waste leaks from the aircraft, usually from the service port.

The resulting overflow then makes its final descent onto people below, as the weight becomes too much (yuk!).

While modern vacuum toilets have made this a rare occurrence, there have been instances where solid blocks of blue sewage have hit people.

One British man was even unfortunate enough to have been splattered in the stuff, after stepping out into his garden in Windsor.

To make matters even worse, the 'poonami' happened just as the UK was coming out of lockdown in 2021, with the BBC reporting that it covered the man’s ‘whole garden, and garden umbrellas, and him’.

Talk about a sh*tty day.

At a later parish meeting, councillor Geoff Paxton explained that such incidents are ‘very rare’.

Having worked at various airports for over 40 years, he told attendees: "We used to have problems with blue ice [frozen human waste and disinfectant] on arrivals but that was because those toilets used to leak."

Honestly, it's enough to leave you feeling a little flushed.