Pilot locked in bathroom causes terror scare

[JDW]

He was caught with his pants down.
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.C., 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.
Desperate to get out and land the plane — which was in a holding pattern above the airport — he pounded his fists on the door to attract attention.
A well-intentioned passenger sitting in the front row heard his thumping and hurried over to help.
Relieved, the pilot told the passenger to go to the cockpit and alert the crew to his plight.
But crew members didn’t react well to the unexpected visit from a stranger trying to breach the highly secure area of the plane.
Click here to read more of this story from the New York Post.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/17/pi ... z1dzejo4Ih

[Expat]

The war on terror was lost, when flying aces got terrorized by

helpful passenger with an accent trying to come to his rescue by banging on the cockpit door.

[FlyGy]

Where was the F/A?

[iflyforpie]

Oh great.... accent screening at the gate now.

[Nark]

Where was the F/A?

The FA was exactly where they were required to be.


Funny foreign accents tend to have a monopoly on hijacking.

[FlyGy]

Where was the F/A?

The FA was exactly where they were required to be.

Awesome!! You were on the plane!! Can you tell us more about the incident? You know how the media leaves out the good stuff.

[Nark]

Anyone who is/was an airline pilot know where she was.

Or if your the least bit cognizant about airline flying, you too would know where she was.

Like I said earlier she was where she was supposed to be.

[JDW]

Awesome!! You were on the plane!! Can you tell us more about the incident? You know how the media leaves out the good stuff.

Wtf is up with this attitude? Nark being logical and clearly smarter than you, made the assumption that on this airline flight there were 2 pilots. Now when one gets up to take a piss, it would only seem logical that the other would be tending to the shop up front. Or maybe he read the whole article 'Relieved, the pilot told the passenger to go to the cockpit and alert the crew to his plight.' Either way, here is someone who made a non-offensive (in this case accurate and logical point) and you still had to be a jerk. What are you trying to prove? FlyGy I hope you know you are not impressing anyone and that attitude is polluting these boards

[The Other Kind]

The F/A was in the cockpit, waiting for the now pee-deficient crew member to return so he/she could open the door to let him/her back onto the flight deck.

Sorry for ruining it for those who feel an ATPL should come with a secret decoder ring.

[Nark]

Thanks for being an internet hero.

Some of us take what the Operations Manuals have to say about security protocols seriously, pilots "physiological needs" being one of them.

[FlyGy]

Awesome!! You were on the plane!! Can you tell us more about the incident? You know how the media leaves out the good stuff.

Wtf is up with this attitude?

Nark got what he gave. I asked where the F/A was because there was nothing at all mentioned in the story. I had no idea that the Flight Attendants were supposed to go onto the flight deck to open the door for the pilot. I'd had assumed he had a key or that there was an electronic locking switch activated on the panel.

I was actually hoping that someone would educate me as to why the passenger couldn't just grab a Flight attendant to get assistance. Instead I got some obscure and assholish comment that answered nothing. "She was where she was supposed to be." is meaningless to someone who doesn't know the fine intricacies of the ATPL OPs manual that Nark takes so seriously and thinks everyone knows by heart, or more appropriately, the gross intricacies that comes from being a passenger on a jet that flies more than once every couple of years like I do.

Now, thanks to "The Other Kind" I am aware of where at least one Flight Attendant was.

Your response though does illustrate why these boards are getting the reputation I've learned about when taking about them to other pilots though. Not everyone who flies an airplane has 20,000 hours and checked to fly everything but an A380. You're pretty new here too, but you're well on your way to fitting in with the "in" crowd.

I'd hoped that by joining these forums I'd be able to take part in an educational process to learn about those things with which I am not familiar. But, I guess there's a few of these "know it alls" everywhere one goes.

[Nark]

I answered with with a smartass statement, and got one back. No sleep lost here.

However, just like Fight Club, what's in the Ops Manual in this case, stays in the Ops Manual. Describing on an open forum the procedure that airliner types go through, when they want to take a leak is in poor form. Just as a medevac pilot discussing their last patient.


Also, not all aircraft have multiple FA's. Chautauqua flies the baby jungle jets, E135-E145's that require only 1 FA.

[hnl]

I hear they got the pilot out of the washroom by using a "can opener".....

[Darkwing Duck]

Nark, whilst I normally agree with you, your comment was a bit harsh and condescending . FlyGy was trying to wrap his head around the situation, where were the FA's, how many FA's, etc. The reason for this forum sometimes is to educate, something that you should of taken a lead on and actually forwarded your knowledge onto others, something you have done in the past.

Play nice AvCanadians.

[Beefitarian]

I think Nark has a valid point though. The reason not everyone knows how certain security things work is to keep bad guys from having access to information that might help them figure out ways to breach things. Yeah this isn't the biggest secret but why put any information about that sort of thing on the internet?

[FlyGy]

I answered with with a smartass statement, and got one back. No sleep lost here.

None here either. Nark's comment was just par for the course. JDW, on the other hand, got all bent out of shape because he feels I sullied his thread.

I honestly had no idea that asking someone to reveal that information might be a security threat either. Like Nark says, it may be in poor form, but there are those, like me, out here who don't even know enough about the subject to recognise it as such. Hence, Nark may have been trying to be coy in effort to evade the question, but the best way would have been to not post a response at all. Thus my interpretation of his comment and subsequent posts.

[Beefitarian]

"sullied his thread"?

It's like you wore clean shoes in by mistake. He reacted like you dropped trou' and scooted across the white carpet leaving a skid mark.

[boeingboy]

Of course - if any of you actually took the time to watch the video that's in the web link................they told you the FA was on the flight deck.

[ragingtornado]

Funny story.... then... wait for it.... lots of arguing

It's rare to see a thread that doesn't descend to mud slinging around here... Is it possible for pilots to forget their ego for a couple seconds and write an informative response instead of a snarky one?

(hope this post doesn't start more arguing)

[burhead1]

I am glad it was clarified, I thought you meant she was in the lavatory with the pilot.

I had to, cause someone was going to say it.


Still must have been a tough decision for the co-pilot.