Pilot stuck in bathroom, security scare flushed

An embarrassing misunderstanding led to a security scare on a Delta Air Lines regional jet.

During a Chatauqua Airlines flight from Ashville, N.C. to New York's LaGuardia Airport Wednesday night, the pilot took a bathroom break - and got stuck in the bathroom.

He told a passenger who was trying to help to alert the co-pilot in the cockpit.

The co-pilot heard the unfamiliar voice -- and declared an emergency to air traffic control.

"The captain disappeared in the back," the co-pilot was heard saying on audiotape. " Uh... and I have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit. I gotta deal with the situation."

The co-pilot thought the unfamiliar accent was Middle Eastern, a source told The New York Post.

The newspaper says the co-pilot "clearly didn't believe the passenger," and told air traffic controllers he wasn't about to let the passenger into the highly-secure cockpit area.

Fighter planes were alerted, but never scrambled, because the pilot finally managed to free himself.

When the captain finally got out, he told air traffic control that the bathroom door latch had broken -- and he had to fight his way out.