What’s the reason for the frequent fecal rain in Shanghai?

Recently, many residents living in Luchaogang Community of Nanhui New Town in Shanghai have experienced being "rained with feces" on the street. Some residents suspected that it might be caused by emissions from aircraft passing over Luchao Port. Regarding this suspicion, some experts explained that civil aviation aircraft store passengers' feces in feces troughs filled with deodorizing disinfectants. If the feces troughs break, the feces mixed with deodorizing disinfectants will seep into the aircraft. Outside, blue ice quickly formed on the fuselage at an altitude of about minus 50 degrees Celsius. When the aircraft lowers its altitude and the temperature gradually rises, these "blue ice" will melt, then break away from the fuselage and fall to the ground.

According to Mr. Zhou, who lives in Luchaogang Community, the "severely affected areas" of "feces rain" mainly appear near Hangwan Road. The weather was originally fine with blue sky and white clouds, but from time to time some "light raindrops" would fall. This "rainwater" was accompanied by a peculiar smell. Residents carefully identified it and turned out to be "feces rain." These feces often fall on cars and quilts hanging out to dry. Neighboring residents said that planes often fly over the community in the morning. Rough statistics show that an average plane flies over here every 5-10 minutes in the morning.

“The feces collection containers of old-fashioned aircraft were not tightly sealed, and dirt would occasionally leak to the ground. But this possibility is almost non-existent in modern aircraft.” Recently, the person in charge of aircraft maintenance of China Eastern Airlines A maintenance staff member said that the vast majority of civil aviation aircraft currently in operation use new feces vacuum collection systems. The person in charge said that after passengers press the button after convenience, the toilet sprays a small amount of clean water, and some also add septic agents to dilute and flush. At the same time, the huge vacuum suction force sucks the feces into several two-layer "feces tanks" carried by the aircraft. "After each plane lands, ground staff use a special feces storage truck to centrally process the feces." The person in charge said that even if the collection system is damaged, the feces will only accumulate at the tail of the aircraft and will not appear as "rain". Forms spread into the air.

Shanghai flight attendants explained based on this matter that the aircraft bathroom now uses vacuum suction to collect feces into a two-layer sealed "feces tank". Even if the system is damaged, dirt can accumulate at the tail of the aircraft and will not be discharged into the air in the form of "feces rain". At the same time, it was also stated that this situation cannot be ruled out as being caused by the explosion or leakage of the aircraft feces tank. The airport will launch an investigation into this and inform residents around Luchao Port of the investigation results as soon as possible.