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Baggage staff damaged jet and kept quiet
Ellen Widdup14.01.09
TWO British Airways baggage handlers crashed a 10-ton truck into a jet due for take-off and failed to report it, an insider claimed today.
The aircraft was on its way from Heathrow to Aberdeen with 80 passengers when it was rammed by the lorry.
The jet was badly damaged but the pair allegedly kept quiet. A dent in the side was only noticed by ground crew as the plane was about to taxi down the runway.
One BA worker said: "Staff are incredulous. For all they knew the plane could have suffered fuselage damage causing it to fall apart mid-air."
The baggage handlers, aged 54 and 49, have been suspended and an investigation launched. They could face charges of criminal damage and endangering safety.
Reader views (4)
Please don't let's go down the road of blaming minimum wages for this doltish, totally irresponsible action.These people should be grateful that they had a job at all, and to act in such a completely selfish and idiotic manner, endangering the lives of the passengers, crew, and perhaps many others on the ground is simply unbelievable and unforgivable. They came close to being mass murderers, and should be treated accordingly.For goodness' sake don't let these fools anywhere near an airport again.Like Mel Barrows of Tenerife, I too am not surprised. Unfortunately,this behaviour sums the Britain of today up in a nutshell.
- Ray King, kassel germany
Nothing coming out of that shoddy country surprises me. Nothing.
- Mel Barrows, Tenerife. Canary Islands.
This is what happens if minimum-wage unfortunates are employed at airports, which is usually the case with baggage-handlers and the like; when Brown and Hoon boast that a 3rd runway at Heathrow will 'create' 65,000 jobs, they deliberately don't mention that a lot of these jobs will be minimum wage or worse. Damage to aircraft from baggage-handlers is quite a well known problem-and some well known low cost airlines boast of half-hour turn-rounds on the ground, adding to the risk of ground damage by over-worked-and under-paid-handlers.
- Jon Kent, Hertford. UK
As you can imagine there are no video cameras covering runways and taxi areas at Heathrow. Just hundreds of them covering car parks and shop areas. This odd situation led there to be no film coverage of the BA 777 crashing when its engines shut down.
- Jack Thompson, Richmond, England
