Pilot Locked Out Of Cockpit After He Went To The Bathroom

It's one of the safety precautions in planes post-9/11: cockpit doors that are securely locked. Turns out those doors are so secure not even the pilot could get back in. INSIDE EDITION has the story.

Imagine you’re flying to Las Vegas and the pilot makes the announcement that he's locked out of the cockpit!

This was no joke. He went down the aisle explaining to the 160 worried passengers that his co-pilot will have to land the plane.  

A passenger on the plane posted a video online and said, "That's our pilot, he just got locked out. We're going to land with the first officer. Pilot's in the back of the plane. Pretty crazy."

INSIDE EDITION's Jim Moret went to a film set called Air Hollywood to see how could such a crazy thing happen?

During the flight, the pilot got up to stretch his legs and he left the cockpit, closing the door behind him. But when he came back, it was jammed shut. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't open it. Then, 13 minutes before they were set to land, the co-pilot, still at the controls, called in an emergency.

The pilot did his best to sooth the nerves of everyone on board.

Delta Airlines issued this statement: "A commercial aircraft can be landed with one pilot at the control. The First Officer took control and landed the aircraft safely without incident.

Aviation expert Jeff Price told INSIDE EDITION, “Cockpit doors are designed today so they are very difficult to get into. Prior to 9/11 they were as easy to get to cockpit doors as it was to get into the lavatory. So now, doors are designed to be difficult to access. Sometimes it is a mechanical system and sometimes the mechanics fail."