American Airlines cancelled its SkyWest CRJ-700 regional jet flight AA3018 from Chicago to Aspen after a passenger locked herself in the lavatory.
The event unfolded in dramatic fashion as the passenger was eventually rescued, issues with the plane required an aircraft swap and a several hours delay before the flight was eventually scrubbed.
Kent Lassman live tweeted the lavatory incident.
First Time For Everything: Pilot just announced, after an hour on the tarmac, that we are headed back to gate. The lady from the seat in front of me locked herself in the toilet. Developing…
— Kent Lassman (@klassman) July 4, 2018
A passenger tried to break in with a credit card. Credit cards have all sorts of uses, from trip delay coverage to stopping bullets during assassination attempts.
The hipster kid from the back row leaped into action with a credit card. He sounds like a latter day Spicoli who announced that he could fix the corvette from Fast Times with his brother’s boss set of tools.
— Kent Lassman (@klassman) July 4, 2018
It didn’t work. Another passenger took over trying to rescue the woman. Things became tense as passengers realized they loaded up on water in the terminal after giving up their liquids at the TSA checkpoint.
I’m reconsidering my decision to buy two bottles of water before boarding. I thought hydration would help with landing at altitude in Denver. Now…well, we’ll see. 4/
— Kent Lassman (@klassman) July 4, 2018
After returning the gate ground crew came on board to try to attempt a rescue. He had to leave to get a special tool. Passengers were all deplaned.
Hero from @AmericanAir ground crew? pic.twitter.com/i2mC8rHmzQ
— Kent Lassman (@klassman) July 4, 2018
American’s twitter team refuses to reveal details of the tool used to extract the passenger from the lav.
It seems I’m not the only one who wants to watch the @AmericanAir jaws of death extricate this poor woman. Alas, we all are going back into ORD.
— Kent Lassman (@klassman) July 4, 2018
Still no sign of the super special tool. Maybe it is too secret and they don’t want spies from @united to see it and will bring it on from the door of jet bridge.
— Kent Lassman (@klassman) July 4, 2018
They freed the woman but the aircraft was taken out of service. Apparently additional maintenance was required.
Scene on the tarmac. The plot thickens? Why would an interior door for the toilet get fixed from guys on a ladder *outside* the plane. I’m not saying there was sabotage, but it makes you wonder. pic.twitter.com/uJWLHtk86L
— Kent Lassman (@klassman) July 4, 2018
A new plane was assigned to the flight and everyone headed over to a new gate. Fear of a repeat event grips our correspondent as he passes a ‘Chili’s Too’ while traveling down the terminal. Or what if American decides to offer complimentary drinks to passengers affected by the delay?
Despite getting another aircraft eventually the flight cancelled. Our reporter-on-the-scene is flown back home from Chicago O’Hare to Washington DC to start a new journey to Denver where it sounds like he’d fly United with no connecting segment to Aspen.
It is nearly midnight, I’m at IAD. I’m 30 miles from home and have been traveling since 9.30 am. Yet it makes more sense to camp in airport than go home and return for a 4.35 am boarding of the next leg on this (mis-)adventure.
— Kent Lassman (@klassman) July 5, 2018
(HT: Dan R.)
How does the size of the bathroom for the ORD-ASE flight compare to what AA has on the most cramped of its mainline fleet?
the 4:30pm tweet is easily explained… clearly a different airplane. The ERJ-145 is not certified to fly in/out of ASE in revenue operations
Entertaining story. … there’s a chance it could be the closing story on a network news broadcast. We will just have to wait and see!
Are you sure it wasn’t a toilet on the new 737-MAX that the poor lady got stuck in??
Could you imagine getting stuck in a bathroom on a long haul flight? It would be a disaster. I’m sure they would have to divert.
It should have been a 737-MAX and the one locked in should have been Doug Parker.
Only then will he rethink his march to destroy AA’s brand.
Gene:
Are you serious? What’s the reason for it?
Reporting is incomplete Did the toilet gal join the rescheduled flight, or was she reseated onto another plane?
This is an old post, but what is the follow up for this? If the door gets jammed during a flight, can a crew member dismantle it using tools stored on the aircraft? In a typical restroom, worst case scenario, you have to crawl under the partition. 2nd worst case, the door doesn’t stay closed. On an airplane, a folding door that is susceptible to jamming should be easily and quickly removable. Any other design is not airworthy.