Airport worker trapped in 737 cargo hold

[SEATAC 400]

Captain heard banging and landed. Although they said the cargo hold is pressurized and temperature controlled. The man says he fell asleep.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Sea-Tac-Airport-worker-trapped-inside-Alaska-Air-cargo-bin-as-plane-takes-off-299619111.html?mobile=y

[brett 2,310]

That's some heavy sleeper.

[britfrog 180]

well i sincerely hope the idle git gets the tin tack, as well as having to pay the landing fee and fuel bill

[mutley 4,495]

I agree BF, he was lucky they heard his distress call.

[allardjd 1,853]

well i sincerely hope the idle git gets the tin tack, as well as having to pay the landing fee and fuel bill

 

 

 

Not likely.  His union will claim that it was the inhumane hours and working conditions that caused him to lose consciousness due to extreme fatigue while carefully stowing the passenger's precious possessions.  They'll get him back pay and a nice fat settlement in lieu of suing them for said brutal working conditions and for  risking his life by not providing a seat belt in the cargo hold, just in case of such events.  He may have even suffered a back injury and will file a disability claim.

 

John

[mutley 4,495]

That sounds as bad as it is here John, I hope HC doesn't get in 2016 otherwise you are screwed.

 

[ddavid 149]

May not be quite so simple - Alaskan have rather poor worker relations at Sea-Tac. Whether this surfaces in the media is doubtful...

 

Cheers - Dai.

 

[allardjd 1,853]

Alaskan have rather poor worker relations at Sea-Tac. 

 

 

You mean management are actually trying to forbid workers sleeping in the cargo holds?  Oh, the humanity!

 

I've been a member of three unions, when I didn't have a choice - no right-to-work laws in place then.  Membership (and paying dues, of course) was a condition of employment.  I've also been on the other side of the table from one or two, as the enemy management during grievance proceedings and in one case an arbitration before an Administrative Law Judge (I won).  I also lived through four or five "organizing campaigns" when a union was trying to get into a non-union workplace; two of those were as an hourly worker who would have been in the "bargaining unit" if they'd succeeded and two (or was it three?) on the management side during organizing campaigns.  I've seen it from a number of perspectives.

 

I've been threatened with physical harm twice, both times as an hourly who was a "union brother" but who was making too much noise and asking too many questions of the union officers.  I've also had my work sabotaged by other union brothers who thought I was "...making them look bad..." by working too hard.  

 

Not all companies are lily white all the time.  Some probably never are, though that wasn't my experience.  However, I have never encountered a union that wasn't contemptible, willing to lie, cheat and steal, anytime, anywhere they thought it might benefit them.

 

John

 

 

[hifly 925]

SLF?

[ddavid 149]

... However, I have never encountered a union that wasn't contemptible, willing to lie, cheat and steal, anytime, anywhere they thought it might benefit them.

 

John

That's a little political, don't you think, John? It's good to know your views but I don't think this forum is the appropriate place to express them so explicitly.

Dai.

[SEATAC 400]

well i sincerely hope the idle git gets the tin tack, as well as having to pay the landing fee and fuel bill

If I were his boss I'd fire him and make him reimburse the airline.

What kind of a moron thinks a cargo hold is a good place to take a nap?

[allardjd 1,853]

That's a little political, don't you think, John? It's good to know your views but I don't think this forum is the appropriate place to express them so explicitly.

 

No, sir. I don't think it's political at all. Funny how what's "appropriate" depends on whose ox is being gored.  Ask yourself honestly - if I had said similar things about a large corporation, would you have protested?  

 

Unlike your innuendo about Alaskan Airlines labor relations at KSEA, what I stated are facts - not politics, not "views", not opinions, not something I saw on the Internet, not, "Whether this surfaces in the media is doubtful..." - personal experiences.  Obviously I haven't encountered every union in the world, only a few.  Others may well be different, or things may be different in other places, or may have changed since those long-ago days, but those are my first-hand experiences with those few, in those places, at those times. YMMV.

 

John

[Quickmarch 488]

Too bad he didn't fall asleep in a wheel well.

[allardjd 1,853]

Aside from being unheated and non-pressurized, I can't imagine a wheel well is a nice place to be when the gear comes up. It's going to be noisy, windy, increasingly dark and large pieces of machinery, powered by hydraulics that could squeeze blood out of a stone, are taking up residence in the general area you're occupying, all of which happens some time before it gets seriously cold and partial pressures dip into the hypoxia zone. Not my idea of a fun ride. I'd take the cargo hold any day.

 

I wouldn't wish the guy any injury but wouldn't be too sympathetic if britfrog got his wish for him.

[brett 2,310]

You guys are brutal, cut the poor guy some slack. He was probably cuddled up into some plush Gucci luggage during a delay.

[hifly 925]

Self Loading Fright .  

[MartinW 0]

That sounds as bad as it is here John, I hope HC doesn't get in 2016 otherwise you are screwed.

If I were his boss I'd fire him and make him reimburse the airline.

What kind of a moron thinks a cargo hold is a good place to take a nap?

 

 

 

 

 You guys are so harsh.

 

And without knowing the facts, his prersonal circumstances.

 

You may be right of course, he may be a lazy good for nothing bum. On the other hand he may be a model worker with an untarnished record.

 

And yes, airport baggage handlers do actually work long hours hauling heavy bags, so perhaps the occasional knackered worker falling asleep should be expected. But hey, lets not have sympathy. Lets not consider any personal circumstances that may have contributed. lets just condemn him and call for him to be sacked.

 

 

And no, it's not "like that here" not unless we are daft enough to listen to politically motivated tabloid hysteria.

 

But hey, shock horror, lets not mention politics.

 

 

[MartinW 0]

 

... However, I have never encountered a union that wasn't contemptible, willing to lie, cheat and steal, anytime, anywhere they thought it might benefit them.

 

John

That's a little political, don't you think, John? It's good to know your views but I don't think this forum is the appropriate place to express them so explicitly.

Dai.

 

 

Precisely!

 

If it had been me all hell would have been unleashed.

 

Just kidding.

 

Liberalism may therefore be evolutionarily novel, and the Hypothesis would predict that more intelligent individuals are more likely than less intelligent individuals to espouse liberalism as a value.

Analyses of large representative samples, from both the United States and the United Kingdom, confirm this prediction. In both countries, more intelligent children are more likely to grow up to be liberals than less intelligent children.

 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201003/why-liberals-are-more-intelligent-conservatives

 

I'm now going to run away and hide.

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

Falling asleep in the most unlikely places is easily done. When worked at Heathrow doing crew transfer work we did some fearsome shifts. A 16 hour spreadover was a regular occurance. On one occasion I had gone into work at 3:30 am to get the coach ready and then drive over to the airport to meet the 4:00 am arrival of the first aircraft in that morning, A Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong. I took the crew of that aircraft into central London, Then a return crew from London to Heathrow for American Airlines and so on until around 11:00 am when my shift split. I was not required again until around 15:00 so went out to the remote stands. Parked the coach on an empty apron. Had a cuppa and then dozed off.

Imagine my surprise then, when a couple of hours later I was woken by banging on the side of the vehicle, I woke up, looked outside and was staggered to see a pair of B747s parked one each side of the coach with all their attendant ground crew and vehicles. I hadn't even heard them taxi in! Apparently they wanted me to move as I was blocking the apron! The banksman saw the funny side of it when I told him what had happened and I carefully threaded 45ft of coach away from the parked aircraft! I finally restarted my shift at 15:00 and after 2 more crew movents into London I finally got home around 18:00 ! Totally bushed! Thankfully the next morning wasn't quite so early, ...if you can call 5:30 a lie in! It was a very busy job and driving airside you had to have your wits about you at all times. Make a mistake and the Yellow Perils, (BAA safety monitors) were all over you like a rash.( One of my colleagues lost his job when went sideways on ice into the side of a B727 and caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to both the aircraft and his coach.) Therefore I can quite easily see how this incident in Alaska could have happened.

[SEATAC 400]

Too bad he didn't fall asleep in a wheel well.

I suppose that would have made it 'steerage class'

[MartinW 0]

Falling asleep in the most unlikely places is easily done. When worked at Heathrow doing crew transfer work we did some fearsome shifts. A 16 hour spreadover was a regular occurance. On one occasion I had gone into work at 3:30 am to get the coach ready and then drive over to the airport to meet the 4:00 am arrival of the first aircraft in that morning, A Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong. I took the crew of that aircraft into central London, Then a return crew from London to Heathrow for American Airlines and so on until around 11:00 am when my shift split. I was not required again until around 15:00 so went out to the remote stands. Parked the coach on an empty apron. Had a cuppa and then dozed off.

Imagine my surprise then, when a couple of hours later I was woken by banging on the side of the vehicle, I woke up, looked outside and was staggered to see a pair of B747s parked one each side of the coach with all their attendant ground crew and vehicles. I hadn't even heard them taxi in! Apparently they wanted me to move as I was blocking the apron! The banksman saw the funny side of it when I told him what had happened and I carefully threaded 45ft of coach away from the parked aircraft! I finally restarted my shift at 15:00 and after 2 more crew movents into London I finally got home around 18:00 ! Totally bushed! Thankfully the next morning wasn't quite so early, ...if you can call 5:30 a lie in! It was a very busy job and driving airside you had to have your wits about you at all times. Make a mistake and the Yellow Perils, (BAA safety monitors) were all over you like a rash.( One of my colleagues lost his job when went sideways on ice into the side of a B727 and caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to both the aircraft and his coach.) Therefore I can quite easily see how this incident in Alaska could have happened.

 

 

Interesting reading about your experiences Alan.

 

And the morel of the story is that we are all fallible human beings that from time to time make mistakes, or succumb to a bout of somnolence.

 

Being too quick to judge is a bad idea.

 

 

 

[allardjd 1,853]

Sometimes in life, either from stupidity, inattention, fatigue, bad luck, a senior moment or some other anomaly, some poor schmuck does something bone-headed. In the vast majority of cases, it goes un-noticed or doesn't get much attention.

 

Every once in a while one of these captures the attention of the news media, the social media or otherwise becomes widely known, resulting in the proverbial "15 Minutes of Fame", or more appropriately in most cases, "15 Minutes of Infamy".

 

This guy did what probably happens often but he just happened to get caught in a way that got some widespread coverage and got a snicker from many of us. It ended without injury to anyone so it has become a source of ridicule and mirth. Like it or not, the guy unintentionally hung a "Kick Me" sign on his own back and provided a smile for a lot of us. There may be and probably should be professional consequences for him from this, but it's hard to have too much sympathy since it's pretty much self-inflicted.

 

John

[allardjd 1,853]

I'm now going to run away and hide.

 

 

 

Promise?

 

John

[brett 2,310]

To quick to judge, not so sure. The fellow stated he fell asleep, even if that was not the case something did cause him to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hey, we all make mistakes but this ended up being a biggy. I feel sorry for him but as they say, don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

 

If I am paying someone union wages or otherwise I expect him to work. Even if he was on a break, it is a ridiculous place to take a nap, no? It would depend on his record if it was up to me to melt out punishment but he would definitely be in deep doo-doo either way. I would be interested in which entity will be paying for the delay when all is said and done. 

[allardjd 1,853]

 I would be interested in which entity will be paying for the delay when all is said and done. 

 

 

Good question, Brett.  I suspect at the end of the day, the airline will have to eat the costs.  There will be fuel, a landing fee, possible extra crew costs, etc, plus intangibles.  I hope he didn't empty his bowels on anyone's luggage; then there will be damage claims to be paid too.

 

John