A passenger onboard a low-cost Indian airline got trapped inside the plane’s lavatory for almost the entire flight after the door jammed and refused to open once he was inside.
The man was then forced to sit on the toilet and hold onto the grab rails as the plane landed before an engineer was able to board the aircraft and finally release the passenger from his claustrophobic surroundings.
The incident occurred on Tuesday on what is thankfully only an hour-long flight from Mumbai to Bengaluru aboard a Boeing 737 operated by Spicejet.
The man had gone into the lavatory shortly after takeoff and locked the door behind him, but when he went to return to his seat, the latch refused to release. Cabin crew were alerted to what was happening by the man’s screams but despite their best efforts, they couldn’t unlock the door from outside either.
Unable to help him any further, the crew slid a note under the lavatory door, explaining what he should do as the aircraft was coming into land.
“Sir, we tried our best to open the door, however, we could not open,” the note read.
“Do not panic, we are landing in (a) few mins, so please close the comode lid and sit on it and secure urself. As soon as the main door is open (an) engineer will come.”
“Do not panic,” the note once again implored the passenger.
A spokesperson confirmed that a “malfunction” with the door lock had prevented the passenger from getting out of the lavatory and that medical support was waiting to tend to the man as soon as the door was eventually opened.
“The passenger is being provided a full refund,” the airline said in a statement. “Spicejet regrets and apologised for the inconvenience caused to the passenger”.
Bi-fold lavatory doors and typically be removed from their hinges inflight by cabin crew in the unlikely event that the lock breaks but some accessible toilets with a single pane door don’t always have this feature.
