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Passenger spies pilot climbing through cockpit window. Here’s the story behind photo

Samantha Gades/Unsplash

A Southwest Airlines pilot had to scramble through a cockpit window into a jet after a door accidentally locked on a Sacramento-bound plane, a photo shows.

Passenger Matt Rexroad posted the photo taken Wednesday, May 24, at San Diego International Airport to Twitter.

The photo shows a pilot climbing through a cockpit window from a ladder beside the airliner as another airline worker stands by.

“Pilot having to crawl through cockpit window to open door so we can board,” Rexroad wrote.

A passenger opened a bathroom door while deplaning, accidentally closing the cabin door to the cockpit, Southwest Airlines said in an emailed statement to McClatchy News on May 28.

The door locked, forcing the next crew boarding the airliner for its next flight to get creative, the airline said. The pilot managed to unlock the door through the window.

The entire operation took only a few minutes and the flight left for Sacramento almost as scheduled, CNN reported.

“It’s certainly something you don’t see every day and I fly a lot of miles and I’ve never seen anything like that,” Rexroad told CBS News.

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