Emirates B773 near Edmonton on Jun 1st 2014, lavatories on strike

An Emirates Airlines Boeing 777-300, registration A6-EGH performing flight EK-226 from San Franciso,CA (USA) to Dubai (United Arab Emirates), was enroute at FL310 about 500nm north of Edmonton,AB (Canada) about 3.5 hours into the flight when the crew decided to divert to Edmonton after all lavatories on board ceased functioning. The aircraft landed safely in Edmonton about 90 minutes later.

Maintenance convinced the lavatory system to resume function, the aircraft was able to depart Edmonton after 3.5 hours on the ground and reached Dubai with a delay of 6 hours.

A passenger reported about 2 hours into the flight everyone on board figured out that none of the lavatories was working. Passengers were kept on board while maintenance was working on the toilets. After maintenance had fixed the toilets, a lot of passengers "tested" the toilets. After operation of the lavatories was confirmed the aircraft was refueled. By then ice had built up on the wings and the aircraft needed to be de-iced before it could depart. Instead of a planned 15.5 hours flight the aircraft reached Dubai after about 21.5 hours.