On Saturday night I checked in for the Swiss flight from NY to Zurich. I was tired and smelly so decided to shower in the business lounge - Swiss uses the Alitalia lounge in Terminal 1.

I was given the key to my dressing room, with the glass shower cubicle off to the side. I disrobed and showered. Switching the water off, I knew I was in trouble. The glass door had become stuck and I was trapped inside the shower. I pushed, pulled, tugged and heaved the vast door, but to no effect. It wouldn’t budge. And with last year’s shower accident still fresh in my mind (That occasion required 22 stitches!), I certainly wasn’t going to force the glass. There was no alarm button to push!

Wet, naked, shivering and with a plane to catch, what’s a man to do? Shout! For thirty minutes, I banged on the wall and shouted for help. I made as much noise as possible. Nothing. No one it seemed could hear me (even in the next door toilet, which was regularly being flushed).

Finally, the rising panic in my voice attracted attention and help arrived. But now problem number two. The lock to the dressing room door had also jammed. Help couldn’t get in. There was only one option. Take that door off its hinges. It took a further 20 minutes of hammering and bashing before the moment I had been dreading…

With the dressing room door gone, I was left in the shower cubicle, behind the glass, with no cover and a room rapidly filling up with strangers. They couldn’t even pass me a towel because the glass was floor to ceiling. Oh, the embarrassment.

It was another ten minutes or so before they could get the glass door open. And I was released. Time for me to get very angry and ponder my plight. At what point would the lounge staff have realised I hadn’t reappeared? Probably when they were about to close the plane door without Mr. Quest.

Most worrying and serious, where was that long red alarm cord you see in showers and toilets to summon help ? There was none!

What would have happened if I’d been an elderly passenger suffering a heart attack? Or any passenger who slipped, fell and injured themselves? It’s simple. Any distressed passenger would be out of luck and in deep trouble.

I have no doubt Alitalia will be apologetic and will take steps to put things right. If they don’t, I am sure Swiss will put pressure on them to do so.

But the fact that a passenger can be trapped for more than 30 minutes in the lounge of a major airport, shouting for help with no-one hearing or coming to their aid is deeply worrying.

Is there a word for an utterly rational fear of showers?

Posted by Richard Quest: 2:04 PM

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