Image courtesy of: Sunday Observer
Rambukwella mistook the cabin door for the toilet
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) are currently investigating an incident where one of their A-team players, Ramith Rambukwella, tried to open an aeroplane’s cabin doors while the flight was 35,000 feet in the air after mistaking it for the toilet.
Rambukwella, whose father is a minister in the government, was part of Sri Lanka A’s squad returning to the United Kingdom after their tour of the Caribbean.
The bizarre incident was first investigated by team manager, Jayantha Seneviratne, who has already submitted a report to SLC’s CEO.
According to an SLC statement, the incident, which happened on a British Airways flight from St Lucia to London’s Gatwick airport, occurred around about midnight when Rambukwella got up and went to use the toilet.
The statement added that the dim lights had confused Rambukwella into thinking that the cabin door was the door to the toilet.
Passengers on board the plane immediately noticed his near-fatal mistake and Sri Lankan team officials eventually helped him find the right door.
Rambukwella apologised to all the cabin crew and passengers, all of whom “accepted it in good faith”.
Speaking about the incident, British Airways were quoted in the Daily Mail as saying that the cabin’s pressurised doors could not be opened and that at no point had any of the passengers on board the flight been in any danger.
One of the passengers who was on board the flight said: “Suddenly he came over and tried to open the cabin door several times. It went on for a few minutes. He was pulling quite heavily. The BA flight attendants came running down the aisle and tried to calm him down. He seemed quite disorientated.”