Mon, Nov 21, 2011
But It Turned Out To Just Be A Jammed Door
Even the pilot has to go once in a while, but on a recent
Chautauqua Airlines Delta Connection flight from Asheville, North
Carolina to New York, a jammed bathroom door caused the co-pilot to
think the airplane was under attack.
The New York Post reports that the incident occurred
shortly before landing. The pilot stepped out of the cockpit for a
bathroom break, but found himself stuck when he could not get the
door open. He reportedly began pounding on the door, which drew the
attention of a passenger seated near the front of the plane. The
passenger, who according to the story had an accent that "sounded
Middle Eastern," tried to get the attention of the co-pilot through
the locked, reinforced cockpit door.
The co-pilot contacted ATC, saying that "The captain disappeared
in the back, and, uh, I have someone with a thick foreign accent
trying to access the cockpit." The captain even tried to convince
his crew mate of the authenticity of his dilemma by
giving the passenger his cockpit-access code ... but the co-pilot
remained unconvinced.
ATC directed the co-pilot to make an emergency landing, but the
captain got himself out of the lav and back into the cockpit in
time to assure ATC that there was no threat to the airplane. The
Post did not say where the flight attendant was on during the
exchange.
ABC news reported that fighter jets were put on alert but not
scrambled, and the FBI and New York Port Authority determined after
the plane landed that it was indeed simply an odd set of
coincidences.
More News
Aero Linx: JAARS Nearly 1.5 billion people, using more than 5,500 languages, do not have a full Bible in their first language. Many of these people live in the most remote parts of>[...]
'Airplane Bounced Twice On The Grass Runway, Resulting In The Nose Wheel Separating From The Airplane...' Analysis: The pilot reported, “upon touchdown, the plane jumped back>[...]
"Burt is best known to the public for his historic designs of SpaceShipOne, Voyager, and GlobalFlyer, but for EAA members and aviation aficionados, his unique concepts began more t>[...]
"Polaris Dawn, the first of the program’s three human spaceflight missions, is targeted to launch to orbit no earlier than summer 2024. During the five-day mission, the crew >[...]
There Are SO Many Ways To Get YOUR Aero-News! It’s been a while since we have reminded everyone about all the ways we offer your daily dose of aviation news on-the-go...so he>[...]