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A pilot created a hijacking scare when he got stuck in the toilet during a flight in the US.

The captain of the Delta flight accidentally locked himself in the bathroom during the flight from Asheville, North Carolina to New York.

The co-pilot became alarmed and notified air-traffic control after a passenger, with a "thick foreign accent", tried to alert the cockpit of the problem.

The conversation between the co-pilot and the control tower was recorded and posted on air traffic control website LiveATC.net.

"He [the pilot] is stuck in the lav and someone with a thick foreign accent is giving me a password to access the cockpit - and I'm not about to let him in," the co-pilot said.

Indianapolis-based Chautauqua Airlines said the pilot had decided to answer the call of nature about 30 minutes from landing but had become trapped.