The captain of Chatauqua Airlines flight stepped into the toilet shortly before landing at New York's LaGuardia airport. But as he tried to step out the door jammed, leaving him stuck shortly before the jet was due to touch down.

He banged on the door of the toilet to try and summon help and to his relief a passenger came to the door, the New York Post reported.

The stranded pilot gave him a password and told him to go the cockpit and explain the situation but the sudden knocking and the unknown voice caused a panic at the aircraft's controls.

His co-pilot immediately radioed ground control to warn them that someone "with a thick foreign accent" was trying to get into the cockpit.

"We are 180 knots 10,000 [feet], can we leave the frequency for a minute? We are going to try to, uh contact dispatch," he said.

"The captain disappeared in the back, and, I have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit and I got to deal with the situation."

He remained suspicious even after the passenger explained what was going on, saying: "What I'm being told is he's stuck in the [toilet], and someone with a thick foreign accent is giving me a password to access the cockpit."

The co-pilot advised him to declare an emergency and land the plane, while fighter jets and the FBI were alerted.

Fortunately, the captain managed to extricate himself shortly before landing.