An American Airlines flight was delayed when pilots got locked out of the cockpit. Maintenance climed in through the window, then ‘lubed it up real good’.
Halfway down the bridge for pre-board (husband recovering from surgery) when the pilot comes out and says to turn around and go back to the gate – that they got locked out of the cockpit.
Y’all. They had to call maintenance and get someone to go in through the window to unlock it from the inside… 🤦♀️😂
The flight was from Dallas – Fort Worth to Monterey, California. Passengers had started boarding, but a pilot sent them back up the jet bridge because the cabin crew was locked out. Maintenance was called and they were able to get in through the cockpit window.
Pilots locked out of cockpit – delayed
by
u/nolawx in
americanairlines
Apparently the door was sticking, and the pilot later joked that maintenance had “lubed it up real good.” The flight was ultimately delayed about an hour and a half.
It looks to me like this was American flight 2140 scheduled to depart at 10:15 a.m. The Boeing 737 MAX actually departed at 11:57 a.m. And contra much of the online discussion, the pilots hadn’t actually ‘lost the keys’. It appears that there was a malfunctioning door (or latch), and passengers told much of the delay was from waiting on a ‘part’ which they later said was lube.
Pilots can get locked out of the cockpit when someone pushes the door closed while trying to use the forward lavatory, with nobody seated inside. That’s what happened on a Southwest Airlines San Diego – Sacramento flight three years ago. A pilot climbed through the cockpit window to regain access.
A Southwest pilot was forced to climb through the cockpit window after a passenger accidentally locked the flight deck door as they tried to use the lavatory during boarding. The Sacramento bound flight left 8 minutes late. pic.twitter.com/0dKWgNhPzl
— Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) May 26, 2023
Jerry Seinfeld once wondered whether planes have keys, and if pilots lose the keys causing all sorts of delays and the airline just doesn’t tell you about it. In a sense he wasn’t entirely wrong.
Airline delays usually come from weather, maintenance, or crew issues, but every so often the explanation really is as simple as: the pilots couldn’t get back into the cockpit – and what’s needed is a very generous application of lube.
Well, what did you expect them to do? It’s not like the old 727 where you could drop the tail stairs.
@Greggb57, how does that help getting into the cockpit?
Such an “oof” … also, depending on the duration of the delay, if we had an EU-261-style rule, affected passengers would likely receive compensation (often hundreds of dollars per passenger), since a mishap like this is most certainly the airlines’ fault, not merely something out of their control, like severe weather… some day, friends…
Pfft. These things happen. Don’t sweat the small stuff
Re: Greggb57. It was the cockpit door that was stuck closed, not the entry door.
GreggB57,
Aft stairs have NOTHING to do with gain access to the cockpit!! Two separate compartments on the 727.
This carries an extra degree of difficulty if it happens in flight.
The talk about lube made someone think of rear entry (sarcasm).
That happened a few months ago to me at MIA. CK gets called for boarding I go down jetbridge, there’s flurry of activity between pilots and maintenance, GA tells me to stop where I am. Turns out the pilots had to crawl through the window to unlock the cockpit door that the previous crew closed locked. Think we only left about 15 minutes late.