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When an airliner has to land, it has to land.

At least, that was the case with an Air Canada Rouge flight from Athens to Toronto that made an emergency diversion to Montreal recently for a surprising reason.

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Onboard sensors indicated that all of the Boeing 767’s toilets were full after much of the 10-hour flight, making them unusable for the final portion of the trip.

The flight carrying 240 passengers was delayed close to two hours as staff checked out the problem, which turned out to be a false alarm, a glitch with the lavatory system.

But the July 3 incident highlighted a little-known fact about modern passenger jets: the waste is not jettisoned from on high — threatening those on the ground with falling, frozen feces — but kept as extra baggage.

Still, having to divert a plane because the toilet tanks appeared to be full is highly unusual, said Peter Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for Air Canada.

Outside aviation agreed.