Baggage Handlers Caught on Tape Throwing Bags 20 Feet to Ground

Baggage Handlers Caught on Tape Throwing Bags 20 Feet to Ground

A Canadian airline may dismiss two of its employees following a video that has received more than a million views on YouTube.

Dwayne Stewart uploaded a clip to the site on Thursday that he filmed from his Vancouver, British Columbia-bound Air Canada flight. In the video, luggage handlers at Toronto Pearson International Airport are shown tossing bags that were checked at the gate down about 20 feet to a bin. The airport workers neglected to use the provided staircase for transporting the luggage so that it could be loaded onto the plane.

"You wouldn't want to walk down the stairs. That would suck," Stewart sarcastically notes in the video. "Sorry, Air Canada — this is a fail."

The airline seems to at the very least have recognized that.

"In light of a recent video posted to YouTube, we would like to apologize for the totally unacceptable mishandling of our passengers' baggage captured on video," the company said in a statement, noting that the employees' actions "clearly contravened our standard baggage handling procedures which require gate-checked bags to be hand carried to the ramp."

"We take matters involving the protection of our customers' personal possessions very seriously," the statement continued. "The actions of these individuals are not representative of the vast majority of our employees who work hard every day to take care of our customers."

For his part, Stewart does not want to see this incident end simply with two people losing their jobs.

"I'd like to challenge your iconic and proud Canadian organization to do the harder thing — fix the culture. Don't fire the gentlemen in the video; train their managers, give them better equipment, ask the people that support the baggage handlers (gate attendants) to ensure carry on luggage meet the required maximum size and weight, fly them somewhere and put them in a window seat so they can see what passengers see and experience what we experience," he posted online. "You are the 'Best Airline in North America' and one of 'Canada's Top 100 Employers' — show us how those awards translate into your reaction to this incident. Show us better."

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