Airlines in India will be fined 50,000 rupees ($735) if their planes dump human waste from toilets in the air, an Indian court has ruled.
The ruling comes after a case brought by a New Delhi man who claimed his neighbourhood had to endure poo falling from the skies.
Satwant Singh Dahiya, a resident near New Delhi’s airport, filed a case in October saying houses in his neighbourhood were damaged by faeces dumped by airlines at night.
In another incident, a 60-year-old woman suffered a shoulder injury in December last year probably caused by human excreta falling from the skies, the Times of India newspaper reported.
Airlines will be fined every time their human waste tanks are found empty on landing. The country's Directorate General of Civil Aviation must conduct surprise checks on planes when they land to check the tanks, the court said.
Toilets on planes have tanks attached to them to store waste. These are emptied at airports by the ground crew on landing. However, some excreta can be discharged mid-air in case of a leakage due to technical faults. These are converted to ice at high altitude and fall off the plane’s surface.
Bloomberg