Baggage handler trapped in cargo hold during United Airlines flight

Baggage handler trapped in cargo hold during United Airlines flight | Secret Flying

United Airlines are investigating after a baggage handler was found unharmed in an aircraft’s cargo hold following a flight from Charlotte to Washington DC.

 

A baggage handler spent an entire flight trapped in the baggage compartment of a United Airlines plane as it flew from North Carolina to Washington Dulles International Airport. Local media outlets identified the worker as 45-year-old Reginald Gaskin. He declined to discuss how he ended up inside the plane, saying only: “I thank God. He was with me.”

 

At some point during the flight, Charlotte Douglas Airport workers realised there was a possibility that Gaskin was locked in the cargo hold of the plane and contacted the Federal Aviation Administration. They alerted officials at Dulles who treated it as a security incident.

 

United Airlines confirmed the incident in a statement Monday. The airline said: “United Express flight 6060 operated by Mesa Airlines from Charlotte Douglas to Washington-Dulles (IAD) landed safely at IAD yesterday. Once at the gate, an employee of the airline’s ground handling vendor was found unharmed in the aircraft’s cargo hold. We are looking into what happened.”

 

In October 2016, a plane bound for Angola from Porto was forced to make an emergency landing in Lisbon after authorities suspected a baggage handler was trapped in the hold. The man was found to be suffering from hypothermia and taken to hospital.