A baggage handler at Reagan National almost found himself as a piece of luggage on a Connecticut-bound flight, as he got stuck in a plane's cargo hold.
A U.S. Airways flight was getting ready for takeoff Monday morning when passengers heard screaming and thumps coming from under the floor, according to the New York Times.
It turns out another baggage handler might have closed the cargo compartment door on his co-worker, trapping him inside.
James C. Goodridge, of West Hartford, was in Washington, D.C. visiting a client and his daughter and took that flight home.
Two minutes after he took his seat, the thumping began.
“I thought it was some sort of mechanical thing,” he said.
The noise went on for five or 10 minutes and the flight attendant did not seem to know the source.
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Then, a passenger in the front row asked if anyone heard screaming.
“The pilot came on and said one of the baggage handlers had been locked in the cargo compartment,” Goodridge told the Times.
After the whole ordeal, the flight arrived at its destination 15 minutes early, Goodridge said.
According to the New York Times:
The trapped handler was also assigned to operate the tug that pushes the plane back from the gate, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. As workers waiting to move the plane noticed that the tug driver was missing, the co-pilot opened a side window and yelled to the ground crew that someone was “yelling and pounding” from inside the cargo hold, the F.A.A. said.
After the worker was freed unharmed, he drove the tug to push the plane back from the gate, and the plane, an Embraer E-170, left a few minutes early, completing its trip without further incident.
No word on if the trapped worker is planning revenge on his co-worker.
