Pilot Gets Stuck in Bathroom ... and Terror Scare Ensues

Who would have thought a jammed bathroom door could lead to a terror scare? The New York Post has the comical tale of a Chatauqua Airlines pilot who, on an Asheville to New York City flight, jammed the bathroom door and found himself trapped—as the plane was in a holding pattern above LaGuardia, no less, waiting for him to land it. A first-row flier heard him pounding on the door; the captain told him to tell his co-pilot and the cockpit crew what had happened. Which the passenger did—in an accented voice.

The co-pilot, upon hearing the voice, contacted 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, and, uh, someone with a thick foreign accent is giving me a password to access the cockpit." But the co-pilot wasn't convinced, and neither was the controller, who instructed him to declare an emergency and “just get on the ground." Luckily, the captain was finally able to get himself out of the bathroom and land the plane. (More strange stuff stories.)