ANZ B772 enroute on May 21st 2014, first officer locked out of cockpit

An Air New Zealand Boeing 777-200, registration ZK-OKD performing flight NZ-176 from Perth,WA (Australia) to Auckland (New Zealand), had been delayed at Perth due to an unannounced random alcohol and drug test, the first officer had to go through. The captain was "enraged" by the delay, a dispute between the pilots arose. Later the aircraft was enroute when the first officer left the cockpit for a toilet break, then got a coffee and had a quick chat with cabin crew. While the first officer left the cockpit, the captain donned his oxygen mask as per standard operating procedures. Upon the first officer's return to the cockpit the captain did not open the cockpit door, three requests to enter the cockpit remained unresponded. The first officer finally opened the cockpit door by the emergency procedure about 2 minutes later and returned to the cockpit. The aircraft continued to Auckland for a safe landing.

The captain is known to require punctuality, his pride was hurt when due to the late arrival of the first officer the departure of the aircraft was delayed by 13 minutes.

New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority reported the captain stated that later into the flight the aircraft was approaching a navigational waypoint, the captain was focussing on the procedures, saw a member of the cabin crew in the monitor and thought the cabin crew would like to enter the cockpit, therefore did not respond to the request to open the door. Both pilots were stood down after the flight and received additional training and counselling, the captain for two and the first officer for one week. The CAA is satisfied with a report provided by the airline indicating that both pilots learned a valuable lesson about the necessity to communicate better with their peers.