Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Taylor  Elaborate! Doowit! Yes! Yes! |
Fine, I'll do it. This happened few months after we installed the hardened cockpit doors in the RJ. The doors have two locks. One is a slam latch that can only be unlocked from the inside and the other is a dead bolt with a key hole on the outside. The dead bolt has a limitation placarded right next to it that says, "DO NOT USE IN FLIGHT". For this reason when a pilot leaves the flight deck a FA has to go up there in case the other pilot becomes incapacitated they can let the other pilot back in.
Enough background, the FO says he needs to take a leak and asks the captain (CAL flowback) if he wants him to call the FA to come up. The captain declined saying that he would use the dead bolt and the FO could use his key to get back in.
Well, the FO tries using his key to no avail so, he calls up to the captain to ask him to unlock the door. He is unable to, the lock is stuck. Then, both kinda panic. The FO sits in seat 1A and the captain declares an emergency and diverts into PIT, single-pilot. The TSA and FBI almost got involved because they thought that it was a breach of the cockpit. They then figured out it was the opposite.
Now, I want you to ask yourself how you might get into the cockpit if it is stuck. I'll give you a minute .................................................. ................ During the diciplinary hearing the captain was asked why he just did not open the "doggy door" or the kick panels. Also, the fuselage will contract and expand as altitude changes allowing the latch to be unlocked. He didn't have an explanation, just that he panicked.
Well, we were able to negotiate a settlement that would allow him to keep his job. However, since he was a CAL pilot that had flowed back to Express Continental decided to fire him for willfully violating a aircraft limitation. He was still on probation over there so there was nothing we could do. I suppose the CAL reps could have fought for him but, I don't think that a CAL 1983 hire FO Rep really cared about him.