Plane makes emergency landing after crew bang on cockpit door over comms problem

A flight made an emergency landing Monday after its pilots lost a radio link with flight staff, prompting them to bang on the locked cockpit door and raising fears that someone was trying to break in.

Flight 6569 set off from Omaha, Nebraska, to Los Angeles at 7:23 p.m. ET but turned around and landed back at Eppley Airfield just 36 minutes later, according to FlightRadar.

The American Airlines flight was operated by regional carrier SkyWest. Both did not immediately respond to overnight requests for comment.

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the plane landed safely “after declaring an emergency when the pilot could not contact the cabin crew.”

“After landing, it was determined there was a problem with the inter-phone system and the flight crew was knocking on the cockpit door,” the statement said.

According to video shot after the plane landed, the captain announced to confused passengers: “We weren’t sure if something was going on with the airplane, so that’s why we’re coming back here. It’s gonna be a little bit. We have to figure out what’s going on.”

Doors on passenger jets are normally locked during flights and were reinforced according to FAA rules introduced after 9/11. However, most commercial planes also have a touchpad through which flight crew can request access — it’s not clear whether this was attempted in this case.