A furious passenger jet captain reportedly locked his female co-pilot out of the cockpit after she decided to take a toilet break mid-flight.
The SriLankan Airlines captain allegedly locked out the First Officer during a 10-hour flight from Sydney to Colombo on Monday and has since been grounded.
According to local reports, the co-pilot found herself unable to access the cockpit after excusing herself to use the bathroom, leaving the pilot alone for a brief moment.
The pilot had become enraged as she had not arranged for her substitute in the cockpit in line with standard operating procedures, leading to a tense standoff between the two mid-flight.
Following the pilot’s petty reaction, a senior flight attendant had to intervene and negotiate with the captain over the plane’s interphone system before he eventually allowed his co-pilot back into the cockpit.
A captain for SriLankan Airlines was grounded after locking his female co-pilot out of the cockpit after she used the bathroom mid-flight
The pair had allegedly been embroiled in a verbal altercation prior to the First Officer leaving the cockpit because she hadn’t arranged for a member of cabin crew to sit in the flight deck while she was in the bathroom.
Although regulations differ from airline to airline, SriLankan Airlines requires at least two people to be in the cockpit at any one time.
Many airlines and aviation authorities enforce rules that require at least two qualified crew members to be present in the cockpit at all times during a flight.
This rule was reinforced after incidents where lone pilots were left in control of the cockpit, leading to safety concerns.
In a statement, the airline confirmed that it had grounded the Captain involved in the incident aboard flight UL607 from Sydney to the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, on September 21.
As many as 297 passengers could have been onboard the Airbus A330-300 at the time of the incident.
‘The airline is fully cooperating with the relevant authorities, and the captain has been grounded pending the outcome of the investigation,’ the statement explained.
‘Safety and compliance with all regulatory requirements remain SriLankan Airlines’ top priorities.’
In 2015, all 144 passengers and six crew members died on a Germanwings Flight 9525 after its pilot locked himself in the cockpit and deliberately crashed the plane.
Among the dead were 16 German schoolchildren, and an opera singer who was travelling with her baby.
Former US President Barack Obama also expressed his condolences at the time over the ‘awful’ crash which he called ‘particularly heartbreaking’ as so many of the plane’s passengers were young.
The incident has led to several airlines tightening the rules around cockpit occupancy.
And in 2022, two pilots of Air-France were suspended following a physical altercation in the cockpit.
Cabin crew were forced to break up the brawl, with one pilot remaining on the flight deck for 75 minutes of the journey.
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