SAN DIEGO – A Sacramento man has captured the moments after an airline pilot locks himself out of the cockpit! It wasn’t in the air, it happened before passengers were allowed to board before the flight from San Diego to Sacramento.
“It’s definitely something you don’t see every day and I fly long distances and I’ve never seen anything like it,” said passenger Matt Rexrud.
Rexrod was returning to Sacramento after visiting his daughter in San Diego.
While waiting at his gate, this tour agent said over the loudspeaker:
“The person on the plane coming in was the last to get off the plane and he closed the door and it was locked.”
They stated that the plane would be delayed and someone would need to open the door from inside the cockpit. And sure enough, Rexrod looked out the window and saw, “This pilot, at his discretion, crawled through the cockpit window and opened the door.”
Matt Rexrod
In a statement to CBS13, Southwest Airlines said: During the boarding process, a customer opened the front lavatory door and inadvertently pushed open the flight deck door (which was locked) while the pilots scheduled to operate the flight were preparing to board. One of our pilots opened the door from the Flight Deck window, and the flight departed as scheduled.
While the flight was briefly delayed, Rexrod says he’s impressed with how quickly it was handled.
“From my point of view, credit to the pilot and the team for being able to make it happen,” said Rexrod.