Baggage handler falls asleep in cargo hold

A 21-year-old JetBlue baggage handler flew between New York JFK and Boston after “mysteriously” getting trapped in the flight’s cargo hold, various media outlets reported Monday. NBC New York says it learned yesterday “that the worker was in the belly of the plane loading luggage for the flight that left JFK Airport around noon Saturday en route to Boston. That’s when the worker seems to have fallen asleep. He later found himself in Beantown after the flight had landed at Logan International Airport,” NBC writes.

The New York Daily News adds the man “stunned his tarmac counterparts at Boston’s Logan Airport Saturday when they opened the cargo door of the twin-engine ERJ-190 jet and unloaded him along with the luggage.” Police initially thought the man may have been a stowaway, but they eventually concluded he simply was “an accidental tourist,” as the Daily News put its. Still, Massachusetts State Police spokesman David Procopio tells the paper that “even after talking to him we were a little uncertain as to how it happened.”

NBC New York writes “one official said it appears the baggage handler fell asleep inside the cargo hold, but added that investigators are looking into whether the worker was accidentally locked inside by co-workers.” Regardless, NBC adds that the official said the worker appeared to be “tired” and nodded off before the flight left JFK.

Then, the man “panicked when he realized he was no longer on the ground,” The Boston Globe writes. The paper says he ‘phoned JetBlue officials from the air but had to wait to be unloaded with the luggage at Gate 28 of Logan Airport, police said. A medical team evaluated him and found no signs of injuries.” JetBlue officials say the company is investigating the incident.

JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin “said the cargo bins on JetBlue planes are pressurized, which allowed (the man) to survive,” the Daily News writes. The flight between JFK and Boston took 37 minutes and reached 17,000 feet, according to the paper, which adds that this isn’t the first such incident to happen at one of the New York-area airports. The Daily News writes that “in June 2005, a La Guardia Airport baggage handler took a nap in the empty cargo bin of a Spirit Airlines MD-80 and woke up 90 minutes later in Detroit.”

Source:USA Today