Pilot locked in lavatory causes unnecessary terror scare

Pilot locked in lavatory causes unnecessary terror scare

www.nypost.com

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.


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What would you do if you saw someone banging on the cockpit door in the middle of a flight? That would definitely freak me out. I might even conk the guy on the head or something. The funniest part is the co-pilot's comments to the tower. “The captain disappeared in the back, and, uh, I have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit.”


www.nypost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Absolute proof that the current system is flawed and needs to be re-examined.

There is no room for error or extenuating circumstances - which in this case has caused a huge kerfuffle over nothing.

I would be interested to hear what accent the passenger actually had and whether it sounded anything like an M.E. accent.....I noticed the article cleverly skirted around that.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!




This is hillarious!!!!! what a bunch of typical BS American scaredy cat behavior!!!

This just made my day!

What's the next headline? "Jesus' face seen on airplane food dish, confused with an Arab... Plane makes emergency landing"...

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

They could pin the blame on the manufacturer of the bathroom door lock. I can't believe that a pilot was suspicious because of a passenger's middle eastern accent. Isn't that like being scared of someone because they're black? Racist profiling garbage'. I suppose that pilot who was scared of the accent actually believes the official 911 story. I bet he thinks the Underwear Bomber was a crazy guy and not set up by the government too.

Klingons on the starboard bow?
ETA Sorry I couldn't resist. I think we need those special NASA space toilets or something. Just have it mounted in the pilots seats and then lock them in the chair!

Originally posted by RainbeauBleu
They could pin the blame on the manufacturer of the bathroom door lock. I can't believe that a pilot was suspicious because of a passenger's middle eastern accent.

That's the thing, it apparently WASN'T a Middle Eastern accent - it was just the overly paranoid co-pilot who got it all wrong.

reply to post by nrd101


why ????????

this does not make any sense

ok - the aircraft presumably has 2 flight crew , no flight engineer

the captain exits the cockpit , leaving his second officer in charge

then locks himself in the w/c cubucle - thats fine upto now - an embarsassing mishap , but such things happen

its what the captain does when a passenger attempts to assist him that makes zero sense [ to me at least ]

he instructs the passenger to request help from the second officer - WTF ?????????????????

what is the second officer going to do ????? he cannot leave the cockpit

in my mind the captains options were simple

1 -[ the blisteringly obvious ] instruct the passenger to summon the cheif flight steward - the cabin crew presumably have a release tool for the locks and can render assistance without disturbing the second officer

2 - request assistance from the passenger - because a door cannot be opened from the inside - its not neseceraly unopenable from the outside , either brute force , or attempting to unlock the door with a coin or other implement

what was the captain thinking - and please dont say ` he panicked ` - he is an airline pilot , if he panicks because a door jamms - whats he going to do when the hydrailics and electrics fail ????


EDIT - to add

my opinion of the second officer is not much better - why didnt he summon a member of cabin crew to the cockpit door to investigate why a passenger is banging on the door ???

not to self - avoid that airline

So the pilot just up and left the cockpit without mentioning why. And the copilot acted oblivious to it? WOW, talk about a lack of communication!!!

Is it normal for someone from the cockpit to simply wander around the plane without explanation to the flight crew? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!

Did the plane have any flight attendents? I hope not but it probably did. And if so, another epic fail?

Does the entire airline function like this?

Check this out;

Pilot: I'll be right back. I'm going to the bathroom.
CoPilot: Okay.
Pilot: DING, cabin crew, call the cockpit. ... Judy, I'm coming out to go to the bathroom.
Flight Attendent: Okay.

Pilot goes to the bathroom.
Pilot can't get out.
Pilot bangs on door.
Passenger gets up and goes to the bathroom door.
Pilot: Thanks, can you push a flight attendent service button and explain to Judy that I can't get out of the bathroom? Thanks.

What was the name of that airline again?
I want to make sure I never, ever fly it.

This shouldn't be rocket science to them.
It's just an airplane.

Just a thought, if the plane has an emergency and has to make an emergency landing (due to the lack of communication, they ended up having an emergency), do the passengers get any information or do they remain left in the dark to?

And another thing, did that well intentioned passenger need to be transferred into a waiting ambulance or did every single passenger just "whatever" his banging on the cockpit door.

While we're at it, let's send that reporter back to college for some refresher courses because these are some key details that they left out!

Good grief.

One last thought, how many pilots does it take to turn on a light bulb? Get it?



Edit to add: The article says fighter jets were alerted but were never scrambled. Maybe someone should have alerted THE FIGHTER PILOTS! lol yeah, yeah, I know. I'm just taking advantage.

Finally, the copilot said the passenger had a thick middle eastern accent. I wonder, was he even close to being correct? The passenger wasn't Irish or Chinese, was he????

One more thing, don't most bathrooms on airplanes have a service button inside them?

Wait, last note, the passenger was in the front row when he heard the banging in the back. (sigh)


A second edit because I just can't resist;
Pilot: "Attention all passengers. Please restrain who ever is beating on the cockpit door. The air force is on the way. Please hurry!"

I wouldn't have to be told twice.

Lmao...
Amazing... Hope that they ground him.. If he cant find his way out of the toilet..what the hell is he doing flying an aircraft ?

reply to post by ignorant_ape


perhaps this plane was one of those little shuttle aircraft? Might have been a 30 seater or something. That's what my kid rides on to see me. No flight crew other than the pilot and co-pilot.

Could have been handled much better though. The guy even gave the 2nd the "password". Really? in an actual hostage sit, I doubt the PILOT would give over THAT info. I think he'd say "so shoot me then @$$hole".

Lol

I believe he pooped in his pants too (when heard the foreign accent), but that part was covered up by the administration.

Nevertheless the whole damn situation was funny and scary at the same time.


Welcome to 21st (paranoia) century.

This is the funniest post I've ever read on ATS. I told my family the story and no one could stop laughing...first thing in the morning, too! Stars and Flags!

The first thought that entered my mind when I read this story... Where was the flight attendant during all of this? and why would the pilot give the cockpit password to an otherwise unknown passenger?

In all fairness to the Co Pilot... given the situation he did the right thing because he is ultimately responsible for every human life on that plane. I think the pilot needs a demotion in this case and the flight attendant??? still no clue on that one.

An unknown person is knocking on the reinforced cockpit door, telling an odd tale about the pilot stuck in the lavatory, using the normally confidential password... on a flight approaching NYC... Thumbs up to the co pilot and just another chapter in the truth is stranger than fiction novel. Imagine if this story was played out in a situation far worse than what happened.

Originally posted by jibeho
Imagine if this story was played out in a situation far worse than what happened.

The only way this could have gone worse is if the toilet had have overflowed and leaked into the planes engine - producing the world's first true SHTF scenario

Honestly? If the pilot knew how to distinguish a Middle Eastern accent over...say.....any other accent in the world, then he would not have gotten so jumpy in the first place and perhaps replaced his emotionally-driven panic with logic.

On a side note - how hard is it to set up a CCTV cam outside the cockpit door? Hell, even a $20 webcam would suffice.

reply to post by Kryties

On a side note - how hard is it to set up a CCTV cam outside the cockpit door? Hell, even a $20 webcam would suffice.

Now, that makes far to much sense and would require congressional approval and expensive FAA contracts and certifications. $20 Best Buy webcam soon becomes $20,000 Sky Mall webcam.

Look for this one on SNL in the coming weeks.

To the passenger's credit, maybe the pilot gave him the wrong password.

Instead of giving him the "hey, can somebody come back here and help me out? I'm locked in the bathroom." password, he received the "HOLY MOTHER OF GOD! TERRORISTS ARE HIJACKING US AND WANT TO FLY THE PLANE INTO A SKYSCRAPER!" password by mistake.

The password for being locked in the bathroom could have been "s(bleep)" while the terrorist password might have been "alpha". Honest mistake.

Can you imagine the conversation the passenger had with the FBI?
May I?

FBI: So you had to go to the bathroom?
man: No, I was trying to help the pilot.
FBI: You wanted to go in the bathroom with the pilot?
man: No. Well, he wanted my help!
FBI: So he was inviting you in?
man: No, he was trying to get through the door.
FBI: Wait a minute. Which one of you was in the bathroom?
man: HE WAS IN THE BATHROOM!
FBI: and where were you?
man: I got up when I heard him banging on the door. I was in my seat.
FBI: Wait a minute. So you were sitting on the toilet?
man: NO! I wasn't in the bathroom!
FBI: MAKE UP YOUR MIND MAN! WHICH LIE IS IT?

Explaining it to the FBI probably took longer then the actual incident.

Since this passenger was sitting IN THE FRONT ROW, I am hoping this was a very small airplane. What were all the other passengers on the plane doing when they heard the pilot banging on the door? Maybe they were to busy l@@king out the window to be bothered with the idea that the pilot was stuck in the bathroom while the plane was flying OVER THE AIRPORT!

Shouldn't the pilot have gone to the bathroom BEFORE they were flying over the airport?! Did he have the flu? One can only hope it wasn't just a routine visit.

One last thing, with the total meltdown of communication that took place on that flight, did the pilot turn on the "no talking" sign? Because, nobody was going to help anybody on that flight.

Good thing nobody had a heart attack during all this.

"You know CPR?"
"No, do you?"
"No"
"Should we tell anybody?"
"Why? I think he's already dead."
"Sshhh, we're going to get in trouble. Stop talking."

Who suggested a $20 webcam for the plane? AWE SOME!

This is just one more reason I stopped flying.

Sad but true, terrorists would have kept everyone better informed.

Edit to add:
FBI: The copilot said you had a thick accent. Middle eastern maybe? Were are you from?
man: South Carolina.

WTF

"What I'm being told is he's stuck in the lavatory, and uh, someone with a thick foreign accent is giving me a password to access the cockpit"

This is very disturbing.

The pilot has now given someone "other than flight crew" a secret password to access the cockpit. (Regardless of accent)

He's didn't summon the passenger to get assistance from the flight crew?

This is very scary.

Originally posted by Kryties
Absolute proof that the current system is flawed and needs to be re-examined.

There is no room for error or extenuating circumstances - which in this case has caused a huge kerfuffle over nothing.

I would be interested to hear what accent the passenger actually had and whether it sounded anything like an M.E. accent.....I noticed the article cleverly skirted around that.

edit on 18/11/2011 by Kryties because: (no reason given)

Huh? Accidents are gonna happen no matter how much examination is done.

Originally posted by nrd101


What would you do if you saw someone banging on the cockpit door in the middle of a flight? That would definitely freak me out. I might even conk the guy on the head or something. The funniest part is the co-pilot's comments to the tower. “The captain disappeared in the back, and, uh, I have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit.”


www.nypost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Doesn't sound like the co-pilot is the smartest tool in the shed....