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Delta Airlines planes.


A Delta Air Lines Inc jet ended its flight from Minneapolis to Las Vegas on Thursday with its captain locked out of his cockpit, the airline said.

The pilot, who was not identified, left the cockpit prior to the final landing approach of Delta Flight 1651 but “was not able to re-enter the flight deck because of a door jam,” the airline said in a statement explaining the mishap.

The first officer of the plane, which was carrying 160 passengers, took control and landed the aircraft safely at McCarran International Airport, without further incident, the airline said.

“A commercial aircraft can be landed with one pilot at the control and Delta pilots are fully trained to do so if the situation were to occur,” Delta said in its statement.

But Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the agency declared an emergency for the Delta crew when the mishap occurred and would be investigating the incident.

Delta said the cockpit door would be evaluated by airline maintenance technicians.

(Reporting by Cynthia Johnston in Las Vegas; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)