Yesterday I was operating on a flight to TLS. The aircraft was a 737-500 with a configuration of 110. Every single seat was taken and, as the landing gear came out and we strapped in for landing, a guy sitting in 19E (opposite the only toilet at the rear) sneaked out and locked himself in the loo.
My colleague who was sitting next to me immediately got up and started knocking on the door. No response. I got up too and called the SCCM and informed him of the situation. He immediately contacted the captain and told her the cabin was no longer secured for landing. She requested we called in again as soon as the pax was strapped in or she would have to abort the landing.
I started knocking even harder and when I was just about to open the door from the outside, he came out. Just in time for our final approach.
Now, apart from the huge b******ing this guy received from me and my (very tall
) colleague, we managed to make him fasten his seatbelt quickly and to pass on the cabin secure message before a GA had to be initiated. However, we started discussing this later on as some doubts came to my mind.
What if we hadn't been able to secure it again?
Captain already knew the cabin wasn't secure so, in theory, she couldn't have landed in those circumstances - unless she was prepared to take on a huge responsibility in case something had gone wrong with the pax!
What if the crew are still trying to secure the pax - wouldn't a go around be even worse, safety-wise? Also I wouldn't like to be standing around when power is applied to those engines!!
Would you just sit down and let the pax take their time - at the end of the day you've done all the PA's, told him a million times, and secured him earlier on and now it's their responsibility?
Not informing the SCCM would have been a stupid thing to do for obvious reasons and also for the fact he would have been able to see what was going on anyway as we only have 18 1/2 rows on a 500 and you can see the back galley easily from the front one.
I felt it was a lose-lose situation and for the first time in my flying career I felt I was about to lose my temper! That passenger acted irresponsibly and put my (and my colleague's) safety at risk. And possibly everyone else's on the aircraft.
What would you do in such circumstances? Any experiences?
Any flight crew who would share what they would do?
Cheers
FBW
