The mistake

A photographer named John was flying first class from London to Nairobi in Kenya when one of the pilots came out of the cockpit to make some coffee in the microwave. He couldn’t get the machine to work, so he asked his fellow pilot to help him.

As the other pilot left the cockpit, he let the heavy metal door close behind him. The pilot started an urgent, whispered discussion with his colleague. The two pilots had locked themselves out of their cockpit and, as they told the photographer (who promised not to tell the other passengers), the door was fitted with a safety lock. This meant that not even the pilots could open it from outside the cockpit. John remembered that he had put his Swiss army knife in his hand luggage. However, he couldn’t remember where he had put his hand luggage and spent five minutes opening and closing overhead lockers until he found it. John and the pilots attacked the door with the knife, the lock started to come loose, and when they broke into the cockpit, the plane was cruising eastward over the Indian Ocean.

Adapted from American Inside Out - Student’s Book.