We Almost Took Off With a Pax in the Lav
 

I'm on a SkyWest CRJ-900 at OAK bound for LAX. We push back around scheduled departure time, but are given a ground hold of about 25 minutes by LAX flight control. About 20 minutes into the hold a large man comes from the back and asks to use the F cabin lav; the FA tells him to go back to his seat. A couple of minutes later, the man comes back and plows through the folding doors and into the lav. About 10 seconds later, our turn comes to take runway 30 and take off. The pilot starts to move the CRJ-900 into position, and then all of a sudden slams on the brakes, having been just alerted by the forward FA that there is a man in the john.

The net result is that we were delayed an additional 10 minutes as we then had to wait for two incoming Southwest jets to land before we could get onto runway 30.

Fortunately, I made my connection at LAX. Barely.

Same thing happened on a flight I was on about a month ago. Gigantic guy in the seat behind me got up to use the lav just after the cabin door was closed (it was somewhat funny because I half expected him to get stuck, since it was a CRJ-900).

He delayed our departure for about 5 minutes, which I am convinced caused us to miss our takeoff slot. We ended up #9 for takeoff, behind Southwest jets...

My wife after eating a vindaloo washed down with six pints of Stella the previous evening had an restroom emergency whilst taxing at MAN a few years back, we took off with her still in there. She got a round of applause when she finally emerged :D

I must be the only one who gives any consideration to what I eat or drink on the evening before an early flight or the few hours leading up to a later one. With that being said, emergencies still happen and sometimes you just can't hold it!

Opposite has happened, emergency, FA understood. Odd feeling when they land.

As someone who does not have 100% of the digestive tract I was born with, I take special care, but as you said, it's nature. While I have never been in the lav for takeoff, I did once give an FA a real scare as barreled straight to the F lav (which looked to her like barreling straight towards the cockpit) about 5,000 feet up. Not fun at all. :td::td::td:

You're not the only one...but I learned the hard way. Many years ago, I partied it up pretty hard the night before a flight on NWA. A poorly thought out combination of liquor and greasy food. On about my fifth walk of shame back to the lav, a woman in an aisle seat stopped me and pressed something into my hand, quietly saying, "I think you could probably use this, dear." It was an Imodium AD tablet. Bless her little heart!

......but all of the standard advice says that one should keep oneself well hydrated when flying. Water in, water out.

Why is the passenger's size relevant to these stories? :confused:

If water is going in and coming right out then you are plenty hydrated.

It's part of the story. I legitimately thought that he would get stuck in the lav.

I had this happen a few years ago while flying JFK-LAX. We were lining up on the runway when a lady sitting in BE got up and got into the lavatory. The FAs paged the cockpit and we just held on the runway until the lady returned to her seat.

Why is the passenger's gender relevant?

Why not ban the description of any pax on the forum. We can just describe them as 4B or 23C.

Or we could accept that when someone is providing a description of an event, including detail about certain features help us to form a picture of the incident.

Similarly, why is the passenger's seat assignment relevant? Who cares whether the person prefers windows or aisles or is qualified to sit in an exit row?

So, we should just say, listen to what a dumb A$$ did on my flight?