Pilot locked in lavatory causes unnecessary terror scare

New York Post ^ | 11-17-11 | Philip Messing and Bill Sanderson

[Driftwood1]

A pilot who accidentally locked himself in the bathroom of his LaGuardia-bound plane caused a terror scare last night when a helpful passenger with an accent tried to come to his rescue by banging on the cockpit door. The embarrassing comedy of errors began when the captain of a Chatauqua Airlines flight from Asheville, N.Car., decided to take a bathroom break before landing. But when he tried to get out of the men’s room, the door jammed, trapping him in the tight quarters.

[TSgt]

I don’t blame the co-pilot. Under the same circumstances I wouldn’t have opened the door either.

[ken5050]

Sounds like, despite themselves, everybody did the right thing..

[Driftwood1]

Right on both comments.

[etabeta]

Why did the pilot send a passenger to the flight deck? Why didn’t the passenger alert a crew member? Didn’t any crew member witness that the door was jammed?

[treetopsandroofs]

Always bring a cell phone to the can.... whether in-flight or at McDonalds.

[null and void]

Oh, dear, what can the matter be?
Seven old ladies got locked in the lavatory;
They were there from Sunday till Saturday,
Nobody knew they were there.

Now the first old lady was Margaret Flynn,
She went inside on a personal whim;
But she somehow got stuck between the bowl and the rim,
And nobody knew she was there.

(chorus)

Now the second old lady was Elizabeth Humphrey,
She went inside and she made herself comfy;
When she tried to get up, ah, she couldn’t get her bum free,
And nobody knew she was there.

(chorus)

Now the third old lady was old Mrs. Mason,
The toilet was full so she used the basin;
Ah, but that was the water that I washed me face in,
And I didn’t know she was there.

(chorus)

Now the fourth old lady was old Mary Draper,
She went inside and she couldn’t find the paper;
All she could find was a bricklayer’s scraper,
Nobody knew she was there.

(chorus)

Now the fifth old lady was old Mrs. Barrett,
She paid her penny and inside she darted;
What a waste of a penny for she only [fiddle]
Nobody knew she was there.

(chorus)

Now the sixth old lady was Chichester’s daughter,
She went inside to get rid of some superfluous water;
Ah, but when she sat down the rising tide caught her,
And nobody knew she was covered all over with ....

(chorus)

Now the seventh old lady was delicate Brenda,
She just went inside to adjust her suspender;
But it somehow got caught in a masculine gender,
And nobody knew I was there. [ha-ha]

(chorus)

[JDW11235]

I just read the article. Among the comments, several pilots/airline workers mentioned that in these types of flights, there is only one flight attendant. As the plane is small, with one pilot, one co-pilot, and one flight attendant, if a pilot or co-pilot needs to use the restroom, the flight attendant goes to the cockpit and locks himself/herself inside with whoever is flying the plame (and thus cannot get up to attend the door).

Thus, if one of the (co)pilots uses the restroom, there’s no flight attendant available. Hope that helps.

[Tunehead54]

All good questions. Where were the “flight attendants”?

Might the “helpful” passenger have jammed the door shut? The captain gave up the password for cockpit access - does that change or is that industry-wide? At least one ME type now knows the password.

Perhaps of interest, I recently learned that the lavs in commercial planes all have a plastic tag above the lock that says “lavatory” but is just a cover that popped up or off reveals the latch to unlock the door.

Useful information in case a bad actor (or pilot) has locked themselves in the plane bathroom. FWIW. ;-)

[NonValueAdded]

The copilot did the right thing. The captain should be in deep kimchee for giving out the password. The broken latch entrapment could have been part of a hijack scheme.

[etabeta]

Thanks for the clarification..