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Home » Delta Air Lines » Trapped In The Sky: Delta Air Lines Passenger And Toddler Locked In Lavatory On Transpacific Flight
Delta Air Lines

Trapped In The Sky: Delta Air Lines Passenger And Toddler Locked In Lavatory On Transpacific Flight

Matthew Klint Posted onApril 15, 2025April 15, 2025 9 Comments

There are few things more stressful on a longhaul flight than managing a restless toddler—but getting stuck in an airplane lavatory with one for over half an hour? That’s a whole new level of inflight horror.

Delta Passenger and Toddler Trapped in Lavatory Mid-Flight

A Delta Air Lines passenger recently shared his unsettling experience aboard flight DL68 from Taipei (TPE) to Seattle (SEA), when a trip to the lavatory with his three-year-old turned into a 35-minute ordeal after the door jammed shut midflight.

According to the father’s account on Reddit, he and his daughter headed to the mid-cabin lavatory about eight hours into the journey. Everything seemed normal until it came time to leave. Despite unlocking the door, the accordion-style partition refused to budge. Repeated attempts to open it were unsuccessful.

After his (clever) daighter pointed out there was a flight attendnat call button in the lavatory, the man hit the call button and began knocking on the door. Flight attendants eventually responded, but with the hum of engines, background noise, and language barriers (the crew initally did not know whether the two spoke English or Mandarin), communication was difficult. Making matters worse, the crew didn’t initially realize both the father and child were inside—the assumption was that an unaccompanied minor had wandered into the lavatory alone and become stuck.

Unsurprisingly in that cloistered space, the daughter became agitated. The father reported that his daughter became increasingly panicked, breaking into tears. As I know as a parent of two, there’s a particular kind of helplessness that sets in when you’re unable to comfort your child—multiply that by 30,000 feet and a jammed lavatory door!

Eventually, the crew attempted to force the door open from the outside (with a butter knife from Delta One business class) while the father pushed from inside. It took some time, but their combined efforts finally worked, and the pair was freed.

Why not just bust the door open? Apparently, the pilots were instructed not to allow it. The passenger added (as if to defend himself for not just breaking the door down), “For context, I’m 215 pounds and relatively strong, this door was secure. Part of me also thought the FAs kinda just assumed I was going to be angry, traumatized and useless in this situation, so my partner had to tell them repeatedly, let him help you.”

The lavatory was then taped shut for the remainder of the journey:

a door with red tape on it
image: Reddit – the father took this picture of the taped-off Delta lavatory after he and his daughter managed to escape

Compensation Necessary?

While there were no injuries, the father expressed frustration at what he described as a slow and disorganized response by the crew. After the incident, Delta offered the family 4,000 SkyMiles as a goodwill gesture—an amount the passenger called underwhelming, given the circumstances.

In correspondence with Delta days after the flight, he pushed back and was offered 17,000 SKyMiles per passenger (not just for the two stuck in the lavatory but for the party of five), but ultimately,  he negotiated and accepted a $200 voucher per passenger (which certainly puts into context the relative value of SkyMiles…).

Lavatory lock malfunctions are rare but not unheard of…I’m surprised that Delta does not have a toolkit of some kind to disable these locks in case of a malfunction.

CONCLUSION

Being stuck in a small, windowless room at 35,000 feet can be harrowing for anyone—let alone a young child. Perhaps the takeaway for Delta here is that it should stock its flights with more than butter knives to open lavatory doors?

As for the father, I suspect he told his daughter, “Next time, we’re holding it!” I hope she’s not afraid to use an aircraft lavatory for the rest of her life…

Hat Tip: PYOK

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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9 Comments

  1. Dave Edwards Reply
    April 15, 2025 at 11:16 am

    Bigger news…..Free WI-FI coming on American in 2026.

    About time!

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      April 15, 2025 at 12:00 pm

      I’ll be covering the new 777-300ER LOPA as my next story – Wi-Fi tomorrow.

  2. Moe Reply
    April 15, 2025 at 2:25 pm

    Why does this fellow deserve any compensation? There was a mess-up and the crew did what was in their power to get him out…

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      April 15, 2025 at 2:29 pm

      I’m not saying he deserves compensation, but if he did it would be because Delta should have maintained its A300-900neo better such that the lavatory door lock would not malfunction.

      • Tim Dunn Reply
        April 15, 2025 at 3:57 pm

        not sure when this occurred but DL’s SEA-TPE flight now operates on the 359 and has for several weeks. the 350 is a far better aircraft for cargo. Now that the ex-Latam A350s are going through the conversion process, DL is able to makes it TPAC fleet large A350s and shift the 339s to the Atlantic and S. America along w/ the 330CEOs.

        The FAA just issued a requirement for inspections of lav doors on about 2000 737s so this isn’t necessarily a maintenance problem.

        and since these lavs are undoubtedly sourced from a vendor and is used on other A350s, this could be a systemic issue as well. We don’t know.

        anecdotal events, while interesting, don’t really get to the root of issues. With fleets of +/-1000 aircraft in the big 3 fleets, stuff happens. sometimes bizarre stuff

        • Eskimo Reply
          April 15, 2025 at 4:57 pm

          Besides “not sure when this occurred”, how is the rest relevant?

          350 cargo?
          ex-LATAM conversion?
          339 Atlantic?
          737?

          Maybe relevant topics like how the crew handled the situation, how the father reacted, or how DL compensated or didn’t.

          But also thank you for not going as far as fluffing about a350 performance speed fuel burn or cargo payload, wait you did a bit.

          • Tim Dunn
            April 15, 2025 at 5:36 pm

            sorry you can’t connect the dots…
            the flight is now on an A350 that is possible because the ex-Latam A350s are coming now going thru conversion. The 339s (mentioned) are being shifted the Atlantic. Cargo is a big reason why.

            Lav door malfunctions happen regularly on commercial aircraft; the FAA thinks frequently enough on some aircraft that they are requiring US airlines to inspect and repair them

            all relevant…

          • Eskimo
            April 15, 2025 at 6:41 pm

            Sure Tim whatever connect the dots how ever you want.

            Like the father and toddler cares how much cargo DL is carrying or how profitable Atlantic 339 will be. I also doubt they care how 737 doors need inspection. They’re stuck in a 339, which they probably don’t even know or cares if it’s a 747 380 or 339.

            How profitable SEA hub is probably relevant too since it’s flying there. Next paragraph about AS too?

  3. cairns Reply
    April 15, 2025 at 6:41 pm

    It coulda been worse. What if Tim Dunn was in there running non stop Delta commercials???

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