[MRM]

About two years ago I was sitting in 1B right behind the cockpit door on a Delta flight. I can't remember what plane it was, but it was probably an Airbus A320 or one of their related variants. My routes are lousy with the old Airbuses except for when I get really lucky and they use even smaller regional jets.

It was windy and the rollout was very rough and we were bouncing around badly during the takeoff and even worse on the initial ascent. The cockpit door kept knocking back and forth in its frame like it was loose. Sure enough, maybe a minute into the flight the cockpit door popped open completely and started banging back and forth like a cheap screen door in a hurricane. I could see directly into the cockpit with two extremely busy and not happy pilots working the controls. We were in steep enough of an ascent that the flight attendant couldn't get up to close the door.

The captain looked over his shoulder and saw me looking at him. He shouted in a very command presence voice not to get up. I wasn't sure if he was worried that I would rush the cockpit or if he was worried that I'd get hurt if I tried to close the door in such turbulence. Either way, his tone of voice did not invite questions or suggestions. He looked ready to hand the controls to the co-pilot and come out of his chair at me if I moved. I appreciated his dedication to keeping the plane flying. I just looked back in the isle to make sure no one crazy enough to rush the pilots saw that the door was open. I figured that if someone did get up I'd be the last barrier before the cockpit and I'd better be ready to jump up if necessary.

Fortunately not very many passengers even noticed. The plane leveled off in a minute or two and the flight attendant was finally able to unstrap herself and close the door. I think one of the pilot's concerns was that if someone did try to close the door they my get thrown into the cockpit by turbulence and hit the controls.

The whole incident left me less than confident in the strength of cockpit doors and makes the whole German Airbus tragedy that much harder for me to comprehend.