Pilot Gets Stuck in Plane’s Bathroom Prompting Terror Scare
- Posted on November 17, 2011 at 4:44pm by
Madeleine Morgenstern
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The pilot of a New York-bound flight prompted a terror scare Wednesday night after he locked himself in the bathroom and a passenger with a foreign accent tried to help by banging on the cockpit door.
According to the New York Post, the pilot of a Chatauqua Airlines Delta flight needed to relieve himself before landing in New York City. But when he tried to get out of the lavatory, the door jammed in the tight space, trapping him inside.
Desperate to get out so he could land the plane — which was in a holding pattern above the airport — he pounded on the door to attract attention. A passenger heard him and jumped up to help, at which point the pilot told him to go alert the crew to his stuck situation.
That’s when the situation began to circle the drain: The co-pilot, still in the cockpit, became alarmed when he heard a passenger banging on the secure cockpit door, trying to gain entry.
According to an audio recordings, the co-pilot, sounding nervous and stammering, explained from his perspective what was happening to air traffic control.
“Can we leave the frequency for a minute? We are going to try to, uh contact dispatch,” he said. “The captain disappeared in the back, and, uh, I have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit.”
Even after the passenger said through the door that the captain was locked in the bathroom and provided the codeword to get into the cockpit, the co-pilot was remained suspicious.
“What I’m being told is he’s stuck in the lav [lavatory], and, uh, someone with a thick foreign accent is giving me a password to access the cockpit,” he said, not believing the passenger. “I’m not about to let him in.”
The controller advised the pilot to declare an emergency and “just get on the ground.”
Soon after, the captain was able to extricate himself and tell the crew everything was OK.
According to the Post, fighter planes were alerted to the situation but were not scrambled.
When an air traffic controller called to to ask whether there was “any level of disturbance on the airplane,” the pilot responded, “negative.”
“The captain, myself, went back to the lavatory and the door latch broke and I had to fight my way out of it with my body to get the door open,” he said. “There is no issue, no threat.”
The FBI and Port Authority police met the plane when it landed and spoke to the passenger briefly before realizing it was all a misunderstanding.
Listen to the full audio recording, via the New York Post:
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roadhog
Posted on November 18, 2011 at 9:07amWhat Airline was this? What would they do if a person had a heart attack in the washroom and could Not unlock the washroom door. How about a key lock on the out side that the flifht attedent could unlock from the Outside.
Report Post »LetUsReason
Posted on November 18, 2011 at 11:04amThis is pretty funny. This could’ve been the perfect storm for a much worse end result. Fortunately it wasn’t. Of course the passenger banging wildly on the cockpit door had to have “a thick foreign accent.” That person maybe should have done some thinking and perhaps rallied another witness or two for verification (perhaps ones without accents). Also, notifying flight attendants would have been a nice gesture. The story says nothing of them. Definitely an odd story.
Report Post »WeekendAtBernankes
Posted on November 19, 2011 at 1:47pmIt’s like a scene from Airplane or something! Too funny. Of course, it’d be disturbing to have been the co-pilot or ATC but how funny!
Report Post »wileyone
Posted on November 18, 2011 at 7:58amWhere was the Flight Attendant during this whole episode?
Report Post »Shayne
Posted on November 18, 2011 at 9:27pmHere is an explanation. Chautauqua flies the E145 a 50 passenger regional Jet. The crew on that aircraft is two pilots and one flight attendant. When on of the pilots has to use the lav, the flight attendant goes into the flight deck just in case the other pilot become incapacitated so that the other pilot can get back in the flight deck. This situation, while funny, was handled perfectly. Even the flight attendant was doing the right thing.
Report Post »BoilerUp
Posted on November 18, 2011 at 6:38amFWIW, the first officer did exactly as he was supposed to by denying entry to anyone but crew. Didnt matter if he was Middle Eastern or not. No one gets in. He is also fully capable of landing the aircraft by himself should the captain become disabled. The door had previously been written up as a maintenance item and cleared, not the Captains fault.
Report Post »FugMan
Posted on November 18, 2011 at 1:50amYep. Nice job buy the co-pilot and the good samaritan!
Report Post »WeDontNeedNoSteenkinBadges04
Posted on November 17, 2011 at 9:21pmAnd the joke goes:
Q: How many flight attendants does it take to open a lavatory door?
Report Post »A: [you fill in the punch line]
Salamander
Posted on November 17, 2011 at 8:53pmI think we owe thanks to the ‘Good Samaritan’ with the foreign accent, who tried to help! And, also to the co-pilot who responded with an abundance of caution! Was it not possible to contact a flight attendant to verify the situation? All the more reason to arm the cabin crew with ‘paintball like’ ammo, filled with chloroform. Perhaps the co-pilot would be able to obtain a meaningful confirmation from the cabin crew if he thought they weren’t disabled with the pilot. You can imagine a little too much coffee, coupled with an unexpectedly long holding pattern, leading to the need for timely relief prior to the final approach. You really don’t want a pilot worried about his personal needs during an approach to minimums at a crowed airport (which implies fuel concerns, number of ‘tries’ and viable alternates). It sounded like all ended well, except the 1st Class Restroom door now probably needs to be held shut during business!
Report Post »Robert999
Posted on November 17, 2011 at 10:18pmWas the passenger with the accent a Muslim. If he was, he should be arrested for interfering with the flight and not thanked. It would have been better if an American helped the pilot.
Report Post »garbagecanlogic
Posted on November 17, 2011 at 6:33pmGuess who is going to be the butt of the airplane jokes for a while. The late night shows will have a blast with this one.
The U.S. Out Of The U.N.
Report Post »The U.N. Out Of The U.S.
lel2007
Posted on November 17, 2011 at 6:08pmI haven’t yet encountered an airline toilet with a lock all that complicated. Should the auto-pilot fail on this guy’s airplane, I hope he doesn’t find the manual controls too complicated. Maybe the FAA should deploy Airline Toilet Door Emergency Repair personnel, similar in organization to the Federal Air Marshals.
Report Post »1casawizard
Posted on November 17, 2011 at 5:58pmGet that damn door fixed.
Report Post »J.C. McGlynn
Posted on November 17, 2011 at 5:57pmAircraft Mechanics Unoin strikes again.
Report Post »geonj
Posted on November 17, 2011 at 5:20pmgood thing the fbi didn’t just shoot the passenger.
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on November 17, 2011 at 5:20pmThe Cascade Effect
Pilot Drinks 3 Coffee’s
Pilot goes to head
Pilot gets locked in bathroom
Mohammed hears pilot yelling
Mohammed bangs on cockpit door
Air Marshall sees Mohammed banging on cockpit door Pulls gun
Mohammed soils his shorts.Mumbles that he has pilot locked in the head.
The Air Marshall
A. Shoots Mohammed
B. Consults the ACLU lawyer up in first class
C.Tazers Mohammed, Then sorts out problem.
D. Gets call from Barry, demanding that he not act stupidly, and if he gets it right , he will head Fast And Furious II (running guns to OWS < just for tracking purposes)
Report Post »Blackhawk1
Posted on November 17, 2011 at 5:04pmCould this possibly be the Pilots Union representative? So Overweight he gets jammed in a lavatory on a plane.
Report Post »bikerr
Posted on November 17, 2011 at 4:53pmNow this here is a good time to have a good laugh. NO ONE WAS IN DANGER,ALL SECURITY SEEMED TO WORK,AND RED FACES ALL AROUND!(EMBARRASSED)
Report Post »sndrman
Posted on November 17, 2011 at 4:49pmlol good thing he didn‘t fall and couldn’t get up. there is a joke in there somewhere. same captain who locked himself is flying and has people’s lives in his hand. something to think about.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on November 17, 2011 at 4:54pmThe needed an… Otto Copilot… alike in “Airplane” :)
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on November 17, 2011 at 4:48pmOh, yea… fly Dufus Airlines :)
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