A picture of a Southwest Airlines pilot climbing through the cockpit window to unlock the plane door has gone viral on the internet. For context, a passenger accidentally closed and locked the door to the plane's control centre on a flight from San Diego to Sacramento earlier this week.
A passenger captured the moment and it soon went viral on social media. A passenger Matt Rexroad tweeted, "No joke... yesterday last passenger got off the plane with no one else on board, he shut the door. Door locked. Pilot having to crawl through cockpit window to open door so we can board."
The picture shows the pilot squeezing himself through the window of the plane during Wednesday's boarding. A ground crew member managed to jimmy the window open.
See the picture here:
The passenger Mr Rexroad told Fox5, "It took a matter of seconds before that window was open. It was all done incredibly efficiently. Despite the unexpected glitch, the flight departed only eight minutes late."
An announcement was made by the gate staff that there will be a slight delay as a passenger has locked the door from the inside of the cockpit.
A Southwest representative responded to Mr Rexroad's tweet, quipping: "Well that is definitely something you don't see every day."
Southwest Airlines confirmed the incident in a statement to The New York Post.
"During the boarding process, a Customer opened the forward lavatory door and inadvertently pushed the Flight Deck door closed (which locked) while the Pilots scheduled to operate the flight were preparing to board the aircraft," the statement reads.
"One of our Pilots unlocked the door from a Flight Deck window, and the flight departed as scheduled."
