A pilot on a Chatauqua Airlines flight from North Carolina to New York just wanted to use the aeroplane restroom before he landed but accidentally found himself stuck when the door jammed and locked him inside. This almost caused a terror scare.
Acting like anyone else would, he pounded the door to get someone’s attention. Unlike anyone else though, the pilot had to land the plane. And as he was trapped inside, the plane was hovering in a holding pattern over LaGuardia airport. Time was ticking! Eventually, all that pounding caught the attention of a passenger who was instructed by the trapped pilot to go to the cockpit to alert the co-pilot of the situation. That’s a sound plan! Unfortunately, when the passenger tried to notify the co-pilot, the co-pilot mistakenly thought the passenger was a terrorist. The co-pilot told air traffic control:
“The captain disappeared in the back, and, uh, I have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit… 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…I’m not about to let him in”
Ruh roh. The co-pilot’s voice was shaking throughout the experience and he later admitted he thought the passenger’s thick accent sounded Middle Eastern. Basically, he thought he had a terrorist situation in his hands. Sensing the potential danger, fighter planes were alerted and FBI and Port Authority cops met the plane when it landed. Luckily nothing went down. The trapped pilot finally broke out of the bathroom and jumped in his captain chair and landed the plane safely. No terrorists, no botched landing, no scares. Just a man and a bathroom. [NY Post via Consumerist]