Co-Pilot Nearly Crashes Plane By Adjusting Seat While Pilot Is In Bathroom

While a pilot took a mid-flight bathroom break, his co-pilot decided to adjust his seat. In the process of that, he managed to hit the control column and send the plane into a terrifying plunge. Things almost didn't end well.
Apparently the 25-year-old co-pilot panicked and failed "to execute the proper procedures as the jetliner dropped from 37,000 feet at a 26-degree angle."
Meanwhile, the pilot was locked out of the cockpit and only managed to enter using an emergency code. The man then grabbed the controls and brought the plane out of the dive. According to an aviation agency report, the "aircraft would have broken apart if the descent had continued" much longer.
No one was injured during the incident and
most passengers remained unaware of how much danger they'd been in:

After the pilot, 39, regained control of the plane, he told passengers, who were in the middle of a meal when the jet plunged, that the plane had "went through an air pocket and that is why there was a rapid descent."

I have a hunch that I'll think of this news story anytime I see a pilot take a bathroom break. [CNN]
Photo by Rick Schlamp