This seems both scary and embarrassing in equal measure:
“The captain has disappeared in the back and, uh, I have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit right now…,” the co-pilot reported.
“What I’m being told is he’s stuck in the lav,” the co-pilot continued. “Someone with a thick foreign accent is giving me a password to access the cockpit, and I’m not about to let him in.”
Not willing to take any chances themselves, air controllers on the ground ordered the plane, operated by regional carrier Chautauqua Airlines, to make an emergency landing.
Before the co-pilot was forced to make that emergency landing, however, the pilot was able to open the bathroom door, and calm his anxious colleagues.
But what I do not understand is why the pilot didn’t press that little alarm/call button they have in all the bathrooms on airplanes. Aren’t pilots supposed to be noted for presence of mind in emergencies? The solution this pilot came up with—giving a passenger the code for entering the cockpit—seems an extremely poor one, bound to cause consternation and even panic in the crew.
My guess? Embarrassment won out, and the pilot didn’t want to make a big fuss by sounding the alarm. Of course, he ended up making a much bigger fuss, and the news (and this blog) as well.
Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely 
November 17th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
I wonder if toilet paper was stuck to his shoe as he headed back up the aisle to the cockpit.
November 17th, 2011 at 6:35 pm
Do.Not.Understand
Why didn’t the pilot have the passenger tell a flight attendant, who could have contacted the copilot via the intercom?
November 18th, 2011 at 8:37 am
Perhaps the flight attendant was in the cockpit with the copilot. Delivering coffee.
November 18th, 2011 at 11:56 am
Never happened to me. I carried a tool that allowed me to unlock blue room doors – from either side. Of course, I never flew a commuter plane so may never have seen that exact type of lav door. Embarrassing, though.
November 18th, 2011 at 3:06 pm
Take no counsel of your fears, for often your fears have prevented you from thinking rationally, irregardless of how rational you think you are.