A jammed lock on an airline bathroom door caused anxious moments for the pilots aboard a flight from North Carolina to New York City.
The plane's captain told air traffic controllers he accidentally got stuck on the LaGuardia-bound Chatauqua Airlines flight from Asheville on Wednesday night.
When a passenger with an unfamiliar accent tried to alert the co-pilot in the cockpit, the co-pilot became temporarily alarmed and notified air traffic controllers, according to the New York Post.
“The captain disappeared in the back, and, uh, I have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit," the co-pilot said.
“I’m not about to let him in,” he told the LaGuardia tower.
A controller told him to consider declaring an emergency.
The captain eventually got himself free from the lavatory. He told controllers there was no threat.
A spokesman for Republic Airlines, which runs Chatauqua, did not immediately comment on the misunderstanding.
