People got nervous last night on a flight into New York City because a man with a “thick foreign accent” was banging on the cockpit door. But he was just trying to help the plane’s pilot, who got himself locked in the bathroom just before landing. The pilot’s pounding from inside alerted a passenger nearby, who the pilot sent to the cockpit to tell the crew. The co-pilot wasn’t buying it: “What I’m being told is he’s stuck in the lav [lavatory], and, uh, someone with a thick foreign accent is giving me a password to access the cockpit,” he told air traffic control. “I’m not about to let him in.” Fighter planes were put on alert, but not activated, and the pilot eventually forced his way out. Immature as we are, let’s imagine that upon exiting the facilities, the pilot looked back toward his passengers, pointed to the bathroom, and exaggeratedly held his nose.
