A Delta Air Lines passenger and his three year old went to the mid-cabin lavatory on flight 68 from Taipei to Seattle. As they finished up, the lavatory door jammed and they couldn’t get out. They tried unlocking and relocking it, and pushing on the door, but it stayed stuck.
The three year old became upset and started crying, so the dad hit the call button and knocked on the door to get attention.
Flight attendants initially thought it was just the child alone. The mother was asked if the child was unaccompanied, so she thought the dad let the three year old go alone while he went in search of snacks.
Once the crew realized the father was also in the lavatory and they were indeed stuck, they consulted with the cockpit and considered disassembling or breaking the door. They worried they might have to divert. They tried a butter knife from business class to no avail. It just caused the lav door to pop off its track.
After over half an hour, the family was freed – and once on the ground Delta awarded them 4,000 SkyMiles for their trouble.
Got trapped in the lavatory with my 3 year old (for 35min) from Taipei to Seattle, long story.
byu/Intelligent_Yak_640 indelta
Afterward, the dad took his queue from his wife’s worries and he… went in search of snacks, “stress [eating] 3 bags” of Sun Chips.
United once had to divert to Denver to rescue a passenger stuck in the lavatory, and American had to cancel a flight because a passenger went to the bathroom before the flight and got stuck inside. Meanwhile, an American flight attendant locked a woman and her toddler in a lavatory during a flight, claiming they were terrorists (they weren’t). My favorite was the crew that just gave up trying to rescue a passenger, “Sir, we tried our best” and left them there for the flight.
On Delta, though, you just need to get a pilot involved. Here’s one who yanked and kicked at the door for 35 minutes to rescue a trapped passenger and another who successfully rescued a passenger using a butter knife.
Those 3 bags of chips are worth more than the 4000 points
@Matt — How’s, ‘for an airline that “tries their best,” please consider Delta,’ sound to you, sir?
Sitting on a toilet seat is about as comfortable as a seat on Delta International, so why not? and why are you complaining — this is as good as Basic Economy gets!
Yikes, sorry that happened glad they got out okay. If it happened to me I would ask for a Shake Shake burger.
@1990 @Matt Let me try let me try “For an airline that actually eventually gets you out when you’re stuck in a lavatory, please consider Delta.”
A350 or A330-900neo?
@L737 — I prefer your version. Keep Climbing (out of the lavatory with our help)!
Just 4000 sky pesos
Speechless
You mean “cue”, not “queue”. They sound the same, but aren’t.
For a premium, extended lavatory experience, choose Delta….
derek,
DAL 68 has been operating with an A350-900 for at least several weeks.
They have also largely used the original build DL 350s w/ 32 business class seats and no lavs at the rear of the aircraft; all coach lavs are in a “lav complex” in the middle of the aircraft and away from the galleys – which could have been not only why it took time for the DL FAs to get there and understand what was going on since they didn’t want to alarm 200 passengers.
given that the lavs are in the middle of the plane, being soundproof is a good idea.
Although Delta builds some lav and galleys, I believe the A350 lavs are built by one of the aircraft interior manufacturers so they could have the same issue.
The FAA just issued an AD for lavs on a couple thousand 737s because people can be trapped in them.
Very premium compensation.
If that ain’t premium, I don’t know what is.
How does this even happen?
It is a pity there is not an automatic fine by the FAA of $100,000 dollars per incident. Bet that would stop it from ever happening.
Airlines, hotels, whatever the service organization is, all of them are clearly built to provide the worst possible service they can get away with.