Your Worst Nightmare Realized: Man Wakes Up to Find Himself Locked Inside an Airplane

Awkward.

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Houston, we have a problem.

In a layover gone wrong Friday, Tom Wagner, who was flying to Los Angeles from Layfette, Louisiana, drifted off and woke up to find himself locked inside a United Airlines plane parked in Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, The TODAY Show and ABC’s KTRK-TV report.

Wagner reportedly called his girlfriend, who contacted the airline, which sent a crew to let him out of the dark cabin. In a TODAY segment that aired earlier this morning, he summed up the crew’s confusion:

“They said, ‘Where’s your badge?’’’ Wagner said. “I said, ‘Dude, I don’t work here, I’m a passenger on this airplane.’ And he said ‘Hold on, hold on.’ He didn’t believe it.”

ExpressJet, the company managing the United flight, apologized for the mixup and offered Wagner a room in Houston for the night and a $250 voucher to help him catch a new flight to California.