5 Surprising Facts About Aircraft Lavatories

FAA requires ashtrays in aircraft toilets

Although smoking on aircraft has been banned on all U.S. domestic flights since 2000, the FAA requires that ashtrays continue to be fitted to lavatory doors due to the fire risk of someone illegally smoking and disposing the smoking materials.

Aircraft are not required to have lavatories

Airlines are not legally obligated to provide a lavatory on an aircraft. Something to think about when airlines are cutting costs…

You can unlock a lavatory from the outside

Aircraft bathrooms are designed to be opened from the outside by sliding the knob under the “Lavatory” sign.

The vacuum flush

Patented in 1975, most aircraft lavatories are equipped with the 'vacuum flush' opposed to the 'chemical toilet blue water recirculate electric flush' to mitigate the risk of corrosive waste spill over and be less odor-inducing. (The 'vacuum flush' system is also substantially lighter.) Photo Credit: Getty Images

The sky is falling…

So many people believed that airplanes were dumping the bathroom waste inflight that the FAA had to release a fact sheet in 2005 titled, “It Came from the Sky: Human Waste, Blue Ice and Aviation” to dispel public perception that waste was falling from the sky.

From smoking to flushing to urban legends, here are 5 facts about airplane lavatories.

_{^{Sources: The Lavatory Ashtray Policy for the FAA, Recirculating toiley sustem for use in aircraft or the like, and It Came from the Sky: Human Waste, Blue Ice and Aviation}}

_{^{Photo Credits: Regina Kenney/Aviation Week, except where noted}}