Passengers had 'new fear unlocked' when nine hour flight landed at same airport it took off from

A bunch of plane passengers ended up with a new fear after they spent several hours in the skies only to end up right back where they'd come from.

The American Airlines flight had been heading from the US to South Korea last year, but a few hours after the plane left Dallas and was out over the Pacific Ocean, it turned right back round and retraced its flight path.

According to one passenger on board the plane, Jimin Lee, the pilot made a rather worrying request to ask whether anyone was 'carrying a screwdriver' to help them fix a problem on the plane.

In an Instagram video, the passenger explained that the plane crew said there was a problem with the toilets, but she said she had a 'new fear unlocked' as she and her fellow fliers were stuck in the skies for hours and then ended up going right back to the starting point.

Interestingly enough, a fault with the toilets really can cause a plane to have to find somewhere to land, because you don't want to be stuck in a metal tube going across the world's largest ocean with people who have no place to s**t.

On top of that, you would probably hope that no passengers just happened to have a screwdriver handy in their carry-on luggage.

Should the message come from the cockpit that they need a screwdriver to fix something, that's going to be a concern for the passengers.

However, if someone had said yes it would rather beg the question as to how they were able to get it through security and why they had it with them.

"American Airlines needs a lesson in effective communication," Lee said as she hit out at getting five hours into her flight before the plane turned round with 'zero explanation' as to the reason why.

You certainly wouldn't want to be on a plane for several hours only for it to turn back and you be left entirely in the dark as to why.

Following the failed flight a spokesperson for American Airlines told the LADbible Group that the plane had to return to its airport of origin due to a 'maintenance issue.'

They apologised for the inconvenience to passengers and said they'd been able to make it to their destination on a replacement flight the following day.

Among the many reasons why you don't want the toilets to break on a plane include the possibility that you might get stuck inside for basically the entire duration of the flight.

That's what happened to one poor man when the toilet locking mechanism failed and the cabin crew had to slip a note under the door telling the bloke they couldn't get him out and he'd just have to sit tight.

On the other end of the spectrum, spare a thought for the flight attendant who had to spend a 16 hour flight holding the door shut after it fell off its hinges.