When you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go, but accidents can happen even if you make it to the bathroom on time. Take it from a Chatauqua Airlines pilot who accidentally locked himself inside a lavatory during a flight, leading to a misunderstanding that sparked fears that terrorism was at work.

As the New York Post reports, the only clear and present danger was that the pilot couldn’t make it out of the can and back into his seat as landing approached. As the plane circled LaGuardia, he pounded on the door until a passenger caught on to what was going on and asked how he could help.

The pilot, who was trapped because the door latch had broken, told the passenger to tell the crew what was up, but the co-pilot thought the man’s accent sounded suspicious and didn’t like that he was trying to get into the cockpit. The co-pilot alerted a controller, who told him to ignore the man to declare an emergency and land the plane as quickly as possible. The pilot eventually escaped the bathroom and cleared things up.

Pilot locked in lavatory causes unnecessary terror scare [New York Post via Huffington Post]

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