I got to the room between the jetway and the hallway to passport control but the door was locked. I'd stayed behind to chat with the crew for four minutes, so I was the last passenger off. I motioned to activate the motion sensor. I pushed and pulled. Nothing.

I ran back to the jetway. That door was locked too. One thing was clear: I knew I wasn’t going to wait around for someone to find me. I picked up the black emergency phone, dialed the number for emergency services, and reached an agent immediately.

“Heathrow Police and Fire Department, how can I help?”

“Hi, I’m stuck in the area between the jetway and the arrivals area and can’t seem to get out.”

Apparently, the emergency phone was registered at the wrong gate, so it took them 15 minutes to figure out where I was. Lucky it wasn’t an actual emergency! However, the man was incredibly competent but honestly didn’t sound surprised when he heard what had happened. He stayed with me on the phone the entire time until a woman came to collect me.

At this point it had been 30-minutes and the return flight had started boarding through the same area, so dozens of bewildered passengers walked past me on their way to the aircraft. I was ordered not to go through their terminal door since I’d be in departures. This is a huge security threat, since the sterile passengers were exposed to me, and I had not cleared security in London.