A Delta Air Lines passenger and his three year old went to the mid-cabin lavatory on flight 68 from Taipei to Seattle. As they finished up, the lavatory door jammed and they couldn’t get out. They tried unlocking and relocking it, and pushing on the door, but it stayed stuck.
The three year old became upset and started crying, so the dad hit the call button and knocked on the door to get attention.
Flight attendants initially thought it was just the child alone. The mother was asked if the child was unaccompanied, so she thought the dad let the three year old go alone while he went in search of snacks.
Once the crew realized the father was also in the lavatory and they were indeed stuck, they consulted with the cockpit and considered disassembling or breaking the door. They worried they might have to divert. They tried a butter knife from business class to no avail. It just caused the lav door to pop off its track.
After over half an hour, the family was freed – and once on the ground Delta awarded them 4,000 SkyMiles for their trouble.
Got trapped in the lavatory with my 3 year old (for 35min) from Taipei to Seattle, long story.
byu/Intelligent_Yak_640 indelta
Afterward, the dad took his queue from his wife’s worries and he… went in search of snacks, “stress [eating] 3 bags” of Sun Chips.
United once had to divert to Denver to rescue a passenger stuck in the lavatory, and American had to cancel a flight because a passenger went to the bathroom before the flight and got stuck inside. Meanwhile, an American flight attendant locked a woman and her toddler in a lavatory during a flight, claiming they were terrorists (they weren’t). My favorite was the crew that just gave up trying to rescue a passenger, “Sir, we tried our best” and left them there for the flight.
On Delta, though, you just need to get a pilot involved. Here’s one who yanked and kicked at the door for 35 minutes to rescue a trapped passenger and another who successfully rescued a passenger using a butter knife.