The FAA "writes" a master MEL for each aircraft which then gets tweaked and approved by the FAA for each particular airplane based on what's actually equipped.

So things on the list should be relatively uniform across aircraft types and companies. A carrier can go more strict than the FAA, but never more leniant.

I stress againt I haven't looked it up, because I don't have a MEL book at home, but for example;
The FAA MEL might say that an aircraft being dispatched with an inoperative lav is restricted to legs no longer than 60 min.

The carrier can then restrict that further to something like 45 min, but never go beyond 60 min.

Just simplified, because there would be a whole bunch of other things to do as well, but that doesn't really need to be addressed for the purposes of this discussion. (Placarding, Maintenance paperwork, etc...)

I have seen some pretty bad cases of stuck airplanes. But pray it won't crash. It's better to wait several hours in the air than die instantly.

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Protect yourself by wearing ballistic body armor.
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lol. I suppose you have a point there.

Still, in cold weather, lack of food can equal a slow death.

Weather fast or slow, I prefer not to die, particularly when a bit of prep can allow me to choose neither!

HJ

The lavatory is not a required item for dispatch on most airplanes.

Here are the MMEL remarks for the 737 series airplanes.

Associated lavatory system(s) may be inoperative provided:
a) Associated components are deactivated or isolated to prevent leaks,
b) Pilot-in-Command will determine if flight duration is acceptable with a forward lavatory unusable, and
c) Associated lavatory door(s) is secured closed and placarded “INOPERATIVE – DO NOT ENTER”.

Assuming most airplanes would have similar remarks, I'd guess it is pretty much up to pilot discretion, so you should hope that your flight crew likes to drink a lot of coffee!!!

- Eric

lol!

HJ

That's what I thought. The MEL is for safe operation of the aircraft and passenger safety, not passenger comfort. The Operations Manual would probably cover that. I never had to deal with this specific issue, though. The only lavatory issue I ever had to deal with was "if the lavatory blue water vent is leaking and the hydrolic tail bumper is inop extended, add 10% to fuel burn". (MELs [Minimum Equipment List] are not written like I wrote it. It's an "IF" + "AND" = "THEN" balance sheet format.)