Thursday, August 31, 2006

Cross your legs and hope to fly!


It must have been quite the sight last Saturday on an Ottawa to Winnipeg Air Canada Jazz flight, as the flight crew discovered that the Captain was stuck on the outside looking in.

With about twenty minutes to go before landing in the Manitoba capital, the pilot of the flight felt natures call and retreated to the on board washroom at the back of the plane. Upon the completion of his mission, he returned back to the cockpit only to learn that the door would not re-open, leaving him stuck in the passenger area while the first officer and a stewardess were holding down the fort on the other side.

The captain pounded on the door and frantically used the in plane communication system to get the attention of the crew, only to learn that the door was stuck and not coming unstuck by normal methods.

The duo finally managed to remove the door by removing its hinges, allowing the captain back into the cockpit in time to bring the plane in and reach the gate. But it must have made the paying folks in cattle class a tad nervous to see their pilot locked out of his own office.

Considering the stringent security regulations in effect these days, we're surprised that they found anything capable of taking a door off a hinge, of more concern suggest terrorism experts is the possibility of terrorists taking a pilot hostage should he have to take a bathroom break

One assumes this means that they may have to revisit the ban on plastic bottles eh!