A freak malfunction on the lavatory door of a SpiceJet aircraft trapped a man inside for nearly two hours, including during landing, before he was rescued. Unsurprisingly, he was outraged, despite the cabin crew doing all it could to keep the man calm.
Man Trapped In Lavatory After Door Handle Malfunction
The unidentified man, who has insisted on remaining anonymous (and yet shared video of the incident and granted an interview to the Times of India…) was flying from Mumbai (BOM) to Bangalore (BLR) on January 16, 2024 on SpiceJet, an Indian budget carrier.
https://twitter.com/fl360aero/status/1747740961264849202?s=20
He got up to use the lavatory but while inside the door lock malfunctioned, trapping him inside. For the next 1 hour and 45 minutes he just sat there waiting to be rescued. Flight attendants tried their best to open the door, but were unsuccessful. He was then passed the following note (pictured above) written on a napkin under the door :
“Sir, we tried our best to open the door. However, we could not open. Do not panic, we are landing in few mins, so please close the comode lid and sit on it and secure urself. As soon as the main door is open engineer will come. Do not panic.”
Easier said than done when the plane is about to land, right?
On the ground, engineers forced open the door, freeing the 37-year-old man who claimed to be in a “state of panic.” He indignantly told the Times of India:
“During landing, I was thrown around and suffered injuries. It took 20 minutes for someone to start breaking open the door.”
Upon merging from the lavatory, he claimed to have bruises and blurred vision but was only offered a bottle of water and a taxi home.
“When I came out, I had bruises, and my vision was blurred for a while. I got a bottle of water and a barrage of apologies from SpiceJet.”
He demanded to speak to a nodal SpiceJet officer to express his outrage and file a formal complaint, but was just placed into a cab.
SpiceJet tells a different story:
On 16 January, a passenger unfortunately got stuck inside the lavatory for about an hour on a SpiceJet flight operating from Mumbai to Bengaluru, while the aircraft was airborne due to a malfunction in the door lock.
Throughout the journey, our crew provided assistance and guidance to the passenger.
Upon arrival, an engineer opened the lavatory door, and the passenger received immediate medical support.
The man denied receiving medical support.
CONCLUSION
I’m not particularly claustrophobic but being trapped in a small lavatory is anything but comforting. This was no doubt a horrible incident. I appreciate, though, that the flight attendants tried to keep the man calm. It was a sweet note, albeit apparently ineffective.
image: @fl360aero / X
The real issue is what type of aircraft was it with a lavatory designed preventing the flight crew from gaining access? What would happen in the event of an accident where the passengers had to use the emergency exists to evacuate the plane – simply leave the man trapped in the lavatory? What about in the case of a fire?
There are levels of escalation in such a situation. The first step would be to deploy the emergency door release which appears to have been followed, but the door frame jammed on something else. If all else fails and there is a life threatening situation (which this wasn’t, unpleasant as it may have been) you deploy the crash axe against the door. If you are strong enough, a well placed kick to the door from the outside will also crack the frame and enable someone to crawl out.
Investigation needs to focus on why the door mechanism jammed and why the emergency release also didn’t deploy properly. Those two may be linked, and that would be the root cause of the issue.
Sounds like a major liability. What if the plane crashes on landing and the passenger is now stuck in the bathroom. There should be some sort of emergency release on the door.
There is an emergency release (which basically drops the hinges so the physical door simply falls outward) and it appears from the video to have been deployed, but the door itself somehow still jammed on something.
This was an Airbus I think. . surprised they have a bad door design…
I would’ve sh_i_t my pants.