Gross reality of flushing on a plane
If you're unlucky enough to be hit by something falling from a plane, it's bad news - but to be hit by a falling mass of human waste is adding insult to injury.
When in 
Gross reality of flushing on a plane
If you're unlucky enough to be hit by something falling from a plane, it's bad news - but to be hit by a falling mass of human waste is adding insult to injury.
When in 2016 a woman from Aamkhoh in India was hit by a ball of frozen waste, dropped from a commercial plane, it was thought to be the first recorded case. According to The Times of India, the faecal matter had frozen at altitude into something resembling a cannon ball when it broke through the poor woman's roof.
So how come these incidents are so rare? Why don't we hear more about the dangers of falling waste matter?
And what exactly happens when you flush an airplane toilet?
While most airplane rest rooms ask you to place the seat down before flushing, it's still a dramatic-sounding operation.
That "whoosh" you hear? It's the noise of the bowl being "evacuated" using the pressure of the airplane cabin.
The modern airplane toilet built by James Kemper took Thomas Crapper's invention to another level, literally.
By using a valve to keep the evacuation system constantly at a lower pressure than the cabin, the waste matter is sucked out into tanks at the rear of the plane. There it remains, hopefully, until being emptied at the receiving airport.
Stored out of sight and out of mind at the back of the plane, today's airplane toilet is a great improvement on previous models.
In the 1930s, chemical drop toilets warned passengers to "avoid using if possible" because of the