A Southwest Airlines pilot had to take an unusual route to get on the plane – through the window. A passenger recorded the situation.
"That's certainly something you don't see every day. And I fly a lot of miles, but I've never seen anything like it," passenger Matt Rexroad told CBS News. Actually, he wanted to fly back to Sacramento after a visit to his daughter in San Diego – but the travelers at the airport were surprised by an unusual announcement, as he reported.
"No joke": Locked-out pilot has to crawl over the cockpit into the plane
A flight agent announced over loudspeakers that the flight could be delayed. The reason was curious, as Rexroad later revealed on Twitter: "No joke ... yesterday, when the last passenger left the plane and there was no one left on board, he closed the door. The door was then locked." At least that's the explanation given to passengers at the airport.
From the outside, there was apparently no way for the staff to get back into the machine. The only option: to open the plane from the inside. "The pilot had to crawl through the cockpit window to open the door so we could get in," Rexroad writes in his post. A photo shows the crazy situation:
No joke... yesterday last passenger got off plane with no one else on board, he shut the door. Door locked. Pilot having to crawl through cockpit window to open door so we can board. @SouthwestAir pic.twitter.com/oujjcPY67j
— Matt Rexroad ✌🏼🇺🇸 (@MattRexroad) May 25, 2023
The pilot can be seen standing on a staircase on the side of the aircraft's windshield. He has already made it into the machine with his upper body, and inside you can see him stretching out to open the door. Rexroad was able to observe the situation from the gate: "In my opinion, you have to give credit to the pilot and the team for doing this," he said, according to CBS News. This is because the flight was then able to take off relatively punctually.
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Passenger accidentally locked out airline crew
In a statement, Southwest Airlines explained what exactly happened: "During the boarding process, a customer opened the front toilet door and accidentally slid the airplane door shut (which was locked) while the pilots who were supposed to operate the flight were preparing to board the plane. One of our pilots unlocked the door from a window of the flight deck, and the flight was able to take off as planned." The airline also reacted to Rexroad's tweet and said with amusement: "Well, that's definitely something you don't see every day."
Category list image: © Twitter/@MaxRexroad
