Sleeping Passenger locked onboard Aircraft
From the Courier Journal(don't ask!):
"One by one, 21 people filed off USAirways Flight 4832 at Louisville International Airport Thursday night(10/5) - 18 passengers, two pilots and one flight attendant - and the door was closed and locked behind them.
Just one problem: There had been 22 people on board.
Left behind was a snoozing passenger who woke a few minutes later, trapped and befuddled. She frantically dialed 911 on her cellular telephone for someone to come rescue her.
Louisville police alerted airport security, who let her out, said Detective Bill Keeling, a police spokesman.
The airline confirmed the incident yesterday. The Federal Aviation Administration said it will investigate.
"This is very unusual," FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said yesterday.
The passenger, whose name and hometown the airline withheld, was flying from LaGuardia International Airport in New York to Louisville on a plane operated by Chautauqua Airlines of Indianapolis for USAirways, said Brian Suttle, a Chautauqua spokesman.
The woman was asleep when the plane landed and awoke shortly after everyone else had left. The airline freed the woman about 10 minutes after the doors were locked, Suttles said.
"We are deeply apologetic," he said.
The jet's crew is supposed to check the plane before locking it, but Suttle said he didn't know if that happened. Chautauqua officials are investigating.
"We're still looking into this and how it may have happened," Suttle said. "We don't have all the details yet."