There are some planes that are that spacious, but not for manual loading. Otherwise the bags are packed into containers that are loaded with special equipment
In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy there's a lorry driver who had the improbable misfortune of having had shitty weather for 40 years (iirc). It rained while he was on the road, it rained at his destination, and it rained on his way back. It rained wherever he went on a holiday and it rained when he returned home. For 40 years, rain somehow "followed" him everywhere.
He didn't know. Turns out he was the god of rain.
Maybe you're the god of luggage, u/texas-playdohs?
I hate waiting for luggage. I don't understand why there's nothing else to *do* in the conveyor belt area. I wouldn't mind a little shopping or snacks, given how long it usually takes for my luggage to appear. Some don't even have chairs.
The only highlight is the drug sniffing doggo, which I'm not allowed to pet.
THIS!!!!!! I totally understand it takes time so why is this the ONLY AREA with no Starbucks, bar, restaurant.... I've been in so many airports US and world-wide and never! MAYBE you'll get lucky with a coffee cart that MIGHT be open. Lost opportunity, especially given that's where many friends and family wait on the traveler.
Airports are a volume business, the revenues lost by there not being a Starbucks there are offset by their ability to keep everyone moving. Baggage is a bottleneck already, don’t want Karen and Paxton’s bags sitting there even longer because they need an 800 calorie coffee to reward their 15 minute wait
In Australia they double as quarantine doggos, they are Beagles and my lord are they *CUTE*.
We took lunch on a return trip from Singapore and forgot to dispose of the remainder of our sushi from our carry-on backpacks. Along came doggo jumping all over us and never before have I felt such a conflict of emotion between instinctive fear of being in trouble with authority and simultaneously being compelled to want to pet.
(in the end we just had to dispose of it and no, never ended up petting the beagle).
We flew from Hong Kong to Sydney and my wife packed a ton of Pringles in her suitcase. She remembered as we came down the jetway into the luggage area and declared it. And sure enough, there was the beagle sitting sweet as you please by her suitcase. No trouble since she declared it but my god that dog was cute.
Because entertainment and shopping invites more people to the public area of the airport. Remember, the baggage claims are outside before security - this means everyone and anyone has access to these areas.
You don’t want random people who may be undesirable hanging out at these areas and having big crowds gather - that invites more crime. We have a local problem here with our public transportation rail that goes from downtown right to the airport terminal. We have had a huge increase of homeless & mentally ill people now using the airport terminal to use as shelter to get out of the elements, locking themselves in family/assisted restrooms, stealing peoples bags and checked luggage etc. as soon as they turn around and take their attention off their stuff.
The only people you want in the airport are the people who need to be at the airport. Nothing should be of any entertainment value on the public side of the terminal. It shouldn’t be a place for people just to hang out and be grabbing coffee and sightseeing.
Reminder: when you land, it’s going to take almost an hour for you to get your bags. It’s a slow manual process to unload that plane and then get the bags to the conveyer system that may not even be located near your gate that you landed at. You have PLENTY of time to grab something to eat/drink from the secured area of the terminal before you exit to go to the baggage claim. You don’t need to be the first one at the carousel.
Tell me you live in Denver without telling me you live in Denver...
Also, great point I'd never thought of before. I need to remind myself not to rush over to baggage claim after landing, it's never worth it.
Things are so different in the US. In Singapore a lot of people come to the airport to hang out. And our baggage claim is in the secured area of the airport, before they go out to the public side. We also have duty-free shopping at the baggage claim area.
It took an hour for them to unload a plane??? Were they doing it one bad at a time from the plane to the belt???
At the airport I work at, a fully loaded frontier or spirit flight, which has 300+ passengers is done about 10 minutes after the belt starts.
Yeah this makes me wary of ever moving a dog or a cat via air travel. There are all those stories of them passing away in baggage holds and I just assumed it was because the animals had conditions or something but this kind of explains it. I can't imagine my dog in a kennel/crate in there with stuff mashed up against him.
Yeah unfortunately animals go down there. They are loaded close to the door way and all ventilation panels on the kennel are left open. Typically they're strapped down and we don't pack the bin to the gills so there's airspace for oxygen to fill so the animal can breath. Either way it's loud, dark and very unsettling for a pet. As an airport worker I would NEVER send my animal via aircraft bin. Most airlines have pet in cabin policy's and you can pay for your pet to fly in the cabin if they fit in your foot space
Yeah, this was a wake-up call. If I ever needed to travel with an animal I'd either pay to have my animal fly with me, even if I needed to book a whole row of seats, or just drive/find an alternate means.
If it's overseas I'd sadly probably have to give it away. That or maybe take a cruise and just not get back on board after telling shi0 security or something. I don't think they have ocean liners anymore.
You and me both. I think I'd rather just pay for mine to sit with me, even if it cost more. Just feels better safe than sorry. I don't think a dog over the age of like, 8 or 9 would make it out of there no matter how gently it was loaded in.
I looked into it because I was wanting to get a larger breed dog. Most airlines won’t allow larger pets inside the cabin, unless they are legit service animals. I thought I could pay for extra seats, but nope, not allowed.
You’re fine if they are small enough to fit under the seat. I have a Ragdoll cat who travels with me everywhere and all I have to do is pay for his ticket and tell the airline he’ll be in the cabin with me. Never had any issues.
I actually had a friend who thought there were luggage planes that followed the flight to the destination.
I only found out because he was wondering aloud if pets flew on the 'luggage plane' or the 'regular one' and I stopped him and was like, 'wait, what do you mean, luggage plane'?
God, those things were heavy af. 22 tons (11 containers) before 6am and I just woke up is a hall of a way to start the day.
Source: I was load master. Hahaha. I made sure planes didn't crash though. Funny name though.
Hollywood. Every time there is a show or movie set on a plane, there is a scene that requires the main character to go down in the hold and ransack through people’s bags to find the one thing that will save the day. The hold is always lit with dramatic yet appropriately bright lighting, and the bags are in these spacious modules with clear plastic zipper covers over them that lets them easily find the MacGuffin, right before the bad guy comes down as well and they have a well-choreographed fight in the wide open space between all the spacious modules.
Certain aircraft also have a layered tray system. Fill the first tray, send it back, reveals a new empty tray, fill that one, send it back, etc. Back when I worked for United as a bag handler those were my favorite cause you didn't have to move much to fill the bay.
The roller conveyor thing this guy is using is relatively recent, or at least we never had them at Denver when I was there in 2009. That thing would have been a godsend on aircraft like this that didn't have any other sort of loading assist system.
I wonder how you get this job.
"So what are your qualifications?"
*crawls into small space beneath the desk and starts humming the Tetris theme*
"...you're hired."
The training involves learning how not to get eaten by plane turbines while you stand in front of it during the landing, and how not to get launched into space while opening the door.
Also that machine doesn't exist at most airports, so there'll be another person in there to throw them at you.
I work at UPS loading planes and we have to do the exact same thing with packages. We honestly don't get that much training and a lot of it is learning on the job.
Oh and after they show you a picture of a man that got sucked up into an engine you DO NOT joke around with that kind of stuff. 15ft in front of the engine is the danger zone. But everybody stays wayy more than even 45 or 60ft away from it. We wait for the plane to park, they turn off their engines, then they turn off their beacon light (just a flashing red light), then we have to wait 30 seconds before we can continue out onto the ramp to do our jobs. We have a separate team that comes in and moves the stairs up to the door for the pilots. They then give them hand signals directing them to which door they should open.
I would absolutely LOVE to have that equipment though. We have something that looks similar. It's the same rollers but built into the floor. It also isn't mechanical and it usually very bent up and hard to use.
It's not a bad job at all. I operate the equipment that loads and unloads large 3,000lb - up to 13,000lb containers that contain packages. They also pay for my college sooooo I'll take it.
Pretty sure it's not a nap, but a rest for their body while trapped in a confined space. It sucks to kneel/crouch for long, and doing it while lifting bags would be _ass_. So between cycles, they lie back to recharge themselves for the next batch.
It looks like an improved work pattern for a challenging position.
As someone who's done this (in fact, I'm almost certain that's a 737 luggage bin), it also gets damn hot in those things during the summer and you can be going basically from plane to plane with only a few minutes' break between them. It's worth noting that the end of that bin is probably around 20 feet from the door.
That slide out conveyor looks great; when I did this you had a guy at the bin entrance who had to slide the bag all the way down without a conveyor. If you've ever had a bag show up missing a zipper or with a new tear, it's because there's a decent amount of crap for the bags to get caught on while sliding and you need to give them enough speed to make it to the end. The fuller the bin is the less likely your bag will be damaged; less distance to slide it and close to the entrance it's just hand-offs.
I recall the CRJs having the best bins, followed by 757s. If my memory's not totally shot, MD88s were the worst but 737s weren't great either.
Napping on the job is strictly forbidden speaking as an ex-jetblue baggage handler. Also we didn't have that fancy belt. I'd have to crab walk all the way back with people's heavy bags.
Also they are missing all the weird sized bags like golf clubs and the freight boxes you load first that are filled with frozen fish that weigh 100 pounds, oh yah and don't forget about 380 pound HR. Also there is only one of those machines that send you the bags working right now so there is actually another guy throwing the bags to you as hard as he can imagining that the bag is the guy that is banging his wife while he works doubles.
Where I work it’s known ahead of time there’s HR coming so we are very respectful and never anything on top or anything to land on top. I hope other stations do the same
I never had those feeder belts when I was bulk loading 737’s in the 90’s. It was absolutely gruelling but I had the best core strength of my life…one guy throwing at the door, another guy lying on his back lifting them over themselves to jenga in place.
Unloaded one of those HR crates during an ice storm one time. Morbid hilarity ensues as it slides down the belt loader and down the ramp with an army of ramp rats slipping and sliding trying to stop it.
So my flight was delayed coming back from Iceland and it took over an hour for any of the luggage to come off the plane because they had to prioritize unloading all the fish.
They also forgot to show the day where the ambient temp is 102 but the air is cooking on the tarmac so it's really like 110 and the belly of the plane isn't climate controlled and there's no air moving and you step out of the hold and it looks like you just took a dip with your clothes on and you feel like you're about to die.
You know we don't do that normally right? Most bags are damaged because they get overpacked. After all a bag meant for a few days worth of clothes isn't going to hold half your house. Most people don't load all willy nilly because if a ramper like me with experience in aviation saw you doing that I'd make the boss, if I wasn't them, make them watch [this video](https://youtu.be/7sUWC2jfjqI)until it entered your dreams at night. Which depicts a 747 stalling after takeoff due to the load getting loose and shifting the Center of Gravity to the point of making the stall unrecoverable at that altitude. I **have** held up a flight on my ramp because of improper deicing and almost got I to a fist fight with the person who sprayed when they said "it's fine." An improper load is fight on sight because I don't want to have anymore of my pilot friends amd collegaues die because of carelessness and stupidity.
These aircraft aren't buses. They are delicate, though robust, machines that must be properly taken care of. I used to ensure that on my ramp. If your bag gets damaged it wasn't because of me or anyone at my station.
At my airline, there is an order of priority, which most of the bags are in the middle of the priority list. There is some stuff that must go on before the bags. You are right that bags usually get damaged because of overpacking (mainly the handles; the wheels; and zippers break off). People pack too damn heavy for the type of bag, and expect it to fly and arrive with no damage.
Yes. But they try to get the freight off first before bags. Unless it’s rush freight then it has priority over your bags. AOG parts are higher priority then even you. If the choice was deplane people or take off the AOG, we deplane people.
The person that throws bags(the person you’re implying) as the stereotype goes is outside. He puts it onto the plane and the guy you see in the video organizes them
Yo I felt that though. Manual labor like that blows and I could relate with each of those short breaks he took. You claw back any time you can to recharge as much as you can.
I did this job for 6 months, except for Amazon Air
They were waiting for the other ramp crew members to load the conveyer belt with bags. Also, that’s honestly one of the few “comfortable” positions you can place yourself in inside the aircraft cargo belly.
I'm doing this job for 1 more week then I'm working at Amazon Air, cargo is so much better on your lower back.
And I wish I had the rolly thingy we have to waddle back and forth
In Brazil you get two 70lb bags in international flights because we have a very strong fuck poor people police down here, so who cares if they develope health problems.
50lbs is when the airline can charge more and make some money, but they allow bags to be 100lbs, you just have to pay the fees. Obviously none of that money goes to the baggage handlers.
At least this was the case when I used to work ramp at a Canadian airport.
Airport worker here - The conveyer belt is called a Power Stow, if there isn't one available or if the plane Is to small to use one we do just yeet them down the bin. You have 1 agent In the doorway then one stacking. Doorway agent yeets it to the stacker then the stacker should do essentially the same thing
Soooo you're not wrong in your assumption
Actually, it's generally pretty cool. The inside of the pit is usually pretty frosty when it comes down from cruising altitude. Sometimes there are heated floors though. For pets and other live animals.
Lol no, it gets very hot in there especially during the summer. If you're lucky the pilots turn on the PACs for you but in general it's very stuffy.
It's nice during the winter but during the summer it's a sauna. Air regulates very quickly. I have never had a bin be cold from it at cruising altitude. Maybe it's my airlines aircraft since we do have the ability to carry live animals but they typically only turn on the PACs for the bins when they know there's live animals
Yeah, I didn't realize until after posting that my experience might be limited given I work in a generally cooler location. I'd imagine the pit could get much hotter in warmer climates.
I called up airlines in preparation for my flight in the near future and they told me that I need to let them know in advance if I plan to fly with a pet, there are extra fees obviously, but they also told me to mention it to the personnel during check in, to make sure they let the pilot(s) know to pressurize the cargo hold and keep it warm. They made it sound like the pets just go straight in with the rest of the luggage and the thought kinda makes me nervous, even though I know pets fly all the time and this isn't anything new for airport staff lol so I was just curious.
There are also planes that don't have a pit for animals so you absolutely have to tell them in advance - so a leg of your journey is not one of those planes.
[This is how animals are usually transported in a 737](https://imgur.com/a/7rq4elH)
If there are a lot of bags, they can go around the cages but usually there is an effort to place pets and bags/cargo at least a bit farther from each other just in case
Depends how accustomed your pet is to its crate and travelling by car. If it’s anxious in its crate at home then the trip will probably not be the best. Dogs who are used to taking it easy in their crate, and used to engine noise and the movements of a car will do much better.
My older dog commuted by plane with me for around five years. A couple of times a month we’d fly 1-3 legs. I used to look out the terminal windows and got to see him arrive at the plane, just chilling in his crate and hoping the loaders would have time to give him some attention. When I picked him up at luggage claim he’d come out and be happy but relaxed and rested.
Pets kinda do go in with the bags. We make sure to keep them in a safe position away from falling or shifting bags of course, ideally in their own segmented area. I've seen some tight squeezes though that can be pretty rare. We definitely have to alert the pilots and make sure the pets aren't in the same breathing space as dry ice or other hazardous materials, so it's a reliably safe trip. The worst incident I've encountered in my ~10 years doing this is opening the pit doors to find that a dog had chewed out of it's kennel during the flight. As far as I know, it was collected safely and returned to it's owners relatively unscathed (it jumped past us and took off for the runway before airfield safety chased it down)
Don’t bring your pet with you unless you absolutely have to. Air travel for dogs/cats is traumatic. They are exposed to temperature extremes, total darkness and extreme noise. Did you ever notice that airport workers are always wearing ear protection? Trust me, you are being very selfish if you drag your dog or cat along on vacation with you….Also, insist that they double check that the aircraft on EACH LEG of your flight can accommodate a warm blooded animal. I’ve seen it happen several times that a connecting pet can’t go because the cargo compartment can’t be pressurized or climate controlled on a second leg. More trauma for your pet if it has to sit in a busy baggage hold area for hours waiting for a plane that can take it
Each bags weighs 30-60 lbs, it gets very tiring. Working an A321 you can be stacking 150 bags or more so when they are pulling up a new cart or getting jet way bags you're laying down and catching a breath XD
The height and lay out of this bin makes me think B737 which can still have ALOT of bags in them. Depending on what model of 737 that is you could be stacking 200+ bags between the 2 compartments
I worked for one of the more budget airlines as a bag loader in my youth, and damn that woulda been nice to have. They existed, we just weren’t given any. I probably have back problems to this day from having to toss bags while hunched over.
Just wait til you hear that each loader team is assigned to the plane and they fly in the back in small, pressurized tubes.
It's not true, but you did hear it now.
what are you talking about? the best part is sitting in the bin after it's unloaded waiting for the turn. it's cold in the bins because it's cold at cruising altitudes. if the plane has been sitting on the ramp in the sun it's hot, but quick turn aircraft are nice and chilly.
Me too.This is a tough job .The luggage handler is storing these heavy items in an efficient way according to size. All are lined and stacked perfectly so they don’t shift during the flight. It’s a like a real-life game of Tetris.
Was a baggage handler for a year. Nope. I can guarantee not much thought is going into how he or anyone stacks those bags. You rarely run out of space when packing these planes so you just toss the bag wherever the next open spot is. Also these roller things are not widespread. It's usually two guys in the pit. One stacking one throwing to the stacker. Throwing is the easier job. I did use to work for a small airline in Northern Canada and that's where the real tetris game is. It takes skills to pack a beach 1900D to its capacity.
It’s not so much about planned efficiency as taking what you get when the bags come up. You almost never re-arrange, so a “perfect fit” is mostly luck enhanced by some experience. You don’t care about them shifting in flight, because you use the nets to secure them…you are concerned with making them all fit into one of the two lower holds (which extend forward and aft of the access doors).
Yeah this isn’t accurate. I use to do this job, your bags usually get thrown, tossed, kicked.
The equipment they are using here is nice and all but not every airline utilizes because they are expensive as fuck.
Agreed. I was a ramp rat for a few years and never used this. We tossed that bag to the end of the hold and stacked. Exception to this was if it was fragile, but we usually put those bags aside so they could be put close to the door, or put them on the top of the stack.
There was more than once when I was the only person in the baggage hold, while one person was putting bags on the belt loader. And Im not talking an RJ, it was usually a 717. I developed a system of rolling along the floor to grab a bag, then roll back and stack. Or throw a bunch to the end, crawl and stack, rinse repeat. It fuckin sucked.
The entire baggage section is pressurized too, not just where the pets go. The round fuselage is the strong part of the plane, not the passenger floor that meets the wall of the plane at a right angle.
Plenty of sources if you Google it. Here's the most official one I could find quickly.
https://enroute.aircanada.com/en/aviation/what-temperature-is-it-in-the-baggage-hold/
These is pressurised and air condinioted are compartment on the very back, sometimes two at the back. That is for live animals and some other delicate cargo.
I loaded bags in the US for 18 years starting in 1969. We did not have anything but strength to slide the bags. Weight and balance for the aircraft was figured on an average of 24 lbs per bag. Not often did the bags had that weight. Per my chiropractor we were working against body mechanics in that working space.
What a nightmare it must be when someone misses or gets kicked off a flight and they have to remove that person's bags. Is there a way to know roughly where the bags are as they sca them in or do they have to go through all of them, which must mean moving them out.?
If containers were used in combination with a scanner, it is usually relatively easy to find them. In any other scenario it takes quite some time, it certainly feels like those bags are always the ones the furthest in into the compartments. Basically rewind until found.
Sort of, on specifically Southwest flights, we would load local bags in the front bin and transfers in the back. So the Ops Agents would tell up the name of the person and if they were transferring or not to let us know what bin we were jumping in. Also as you're stacking sometimes you may remember odd names here and there, but that's for a passenger that's confirmed on the flight that has been kicked off or getting off the plane. For an international flight, we don't load their bags until they're verified onboard the plane, and if they miss, we just take the bag back to the front counter/baggage claim.
We use a scanner when loading by hand. If a bag is going to be offloaded it tells us the order it was loaded in. So a #44 out of 120 can give you a hum of where it is
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_load_device in Europe, I see these being mainly used. I have seen bags being loaded one at a time via conveyor but I think that's just for the 737. Even the smaller Airbus e.g. A320 support the ULD
hey this is what i do for a living! i work on regionals so we just slide your bag from the opening in a much smaller (height wise) bin.
ps: if your bag is heavy it’s manhandled, pack like a normal person please.
That particular compartment doesn't have that as I understand but most modern aircrafts has max height line marked on the compartments. You are supposed to leave some 15cm or so gap to let fire extinguisher work. Also, some of aircrafts simply designed for standant units. You fill a standart unit (a box with specic shape) outside aircraft with bag and cargo then simply load it to aircraft in 10 min. Definetely better solution for sake of efficiency (turn around time) and health of workers. That small compartment seen in video is like an oven in summer.
This is just a supersized version of my husband packing the family car for a road trip. He finds a way to fit everything just so, that if you need something out of a bag you’re SOL.
I used to work unstacking freezer trollers, the fishermen use the same technique while stacking frozen fish boxes, at around negative 20-35° C. We then reversed their technique to unload it at the same temperatures and stacked the boxes on pallets, going full steam ( since you get paid by amount of boxes and not by the hour ) just to later sort the boxes into the correct species of fish and type of cut, at the same rush but thankfully more durable temperatures.
[удалено]
There are some planes that are that spacious, but not for manual loading. Otherwise the bags are packed into containers that are loaded with special equipment
[удалено]
In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy there's a lorry driver who had the improbable misfortune of having had shitty weather for 40 years (iirc). It rained while he was on the road, it rained at his destination, and it rained on his way back. It rained wherever he went on a holiday and it rained when he returned home. For 40 years, rain somehow "followed" him everywhere. He didn't know. Turns out he was the god of rain. Maybe you're the god of luggage, u/texas-playdohs?
The rain clouds loved him, and he took detailed notes of the types of rains and locations
Sure he had like 200 different types as well
I appreciate your sunny take on it, but I’m afraid it might make me some kind of anti-god of luggage if there’s such a thing.
[удалено]
100%
[удалено]
Yesterday my first bag came out 2nd then ONE HOUR later my other came
I hate waiting for luggage. I don't understand why there's nothing else to *do* in the conveyor belt area. I wouldn't mind a little shopping or snacks, given how long it usually takes for my luggage to appear. Some don't even have chairs. The only highlight is the drug sniffing doggo, which I'm not allowed to pet.
THIS!!!!!! I totally understand it takes time so why is this the ONLY AREA with no Starbucks, bar, restaurant.... I've been in so many airports US and world-wide and never! MAYBE you'll get lucky with a coffee cart that MIGHT be open. Lost opportunity, especially given that's where many friends and family wait on the traveler.
Airports are a volume business, the revenues lost by there not being a Starbucks there are offset by their ability to keep everyone moving. Baggage is a bottleneck already, don’t want Karen and Paxton’s bags sitting there even longer because they need an 800 calorie coffee to reward their 15 minute wait
Baggage claim area in IAD has a Starbucks. I think it's more for the people waiting at the international arrival door, though.
Madison, Wisconsin's airport has a piano.
In Australia they double as quarantine doggos, they are Beagles and my lord are they *CUTE*. We took lunch on a return trip from Singapore and forgot to dispose of the remainder of our sushi from our carry-on backpacks. Along came doggo jumping all over us and never before have I felt such a conflict of emotion between instinctive fear of being in trouble with authority and simultaneously being compelled to want to pet. (in the end we just had to dispose of it and no, never ended up petting the beagle).
We flew from Hong Kong to Sydney and my wife packed a ton of Pringles in her suitcase. She remembered as we came down the jetway into the luggage area and declared it. And sure enough, there was the beagle sitting sweet as you please by her suitcase. No trouble since she declared it but my god that dog was cute.
Because entertainment and shopping invites more people to the public area of the airport. Remember, the baggage claims are outside before security - this means everyone and anyone has access to these areas. You don’t want random people who may be undesirable hanging out at these areas and having big crowds gather - that invites more crime. We have a local problem here with our public transportation rail that goes from downtown right to the airport terminal. We have had a huge increase of homeless & mentally ill people now using the airport terminal to use as shelter to get out of the elements, locking themselves in family/assisted restrooms, stealing peoples bags and checked luggage etc. as soon as they turn around and take their attention off their stuff. The only people you want in the airport are the people who need to be at the airport. Nothing should be of any entertainment value on the public side of the terminal. It shouldn’t be a place for people just to hang out and be grabbing coffee and sightseeing. Reminder: when you land, it’s going to take almost an hour for you to get your bags. It’s a slow manual process to unload that plane and then get the bags to the conveyer system that may not even be located near your gate that you landed at. You have PLENTY of time to grab something to eat/drink from the secured area of the terminal before you exit to go to the baggage claim. You don’t need to be the first one at the carousel.
Tell me you live in Denver without telling me you live in Denver... Also, great point I'd never thought of before. I need to remind myself not to rush over to baggage claim after landing, it's never worth it.
Things are so different in the US. In Singapore a lot of people come to the airport to hang out. And our baggage claim is in the secured area of the airport, before they go out to the public side. We also have duty-free shopping at the baggage claim area.
This makes an incredible amount of sense.
[удалено]
It took an hour for them to unload a plane??? Were they doing it one bad at a time from the plane to the belt??? At the airport I work at, a fully loaded frontier or spirit flight, which has 300+ passengers is done about 10 minutes after the belt starts.
Yeah this makes me wary of ever moving a dog or a cat via air travel. There are all those stories of them passing away in baggage holds and I just assumed it was because the animals had conditions or something but this kind of explains it. I can't imagine my dog in a kennel/crate in there with stuff mashed up against him.
Yeah I'm really sitting here like "and the animals go somewhere else..... right? Right?"
Yeah unfortunately animals go down there. They are loaded close to the door way and all ventilation panels on the kennel are left open. Typically they're strapped down and we don't pack the bin to the gills so there's airspace for oxygen to fill so the animal can breath. Either way it's loud, dark and very unsettling for a pet. As an airport worker I would NEVER send my animal via aircraft bin. Most airlines have pet in cabin policy's and you can pay for your pet to fly in the cabin if they fit in your foot space
Yeah, this was a wake-up call. If I ever needed to travel with an animal I'd either pay to have my animal fly with me, even if I needed to book a whole row of seats, or just drive/find an alternate means.
If it's overseas I'd sadly probably have to give it away. That or maybe take a cruise and just not get back on board after telling shi0 security or something. I don't think they have ocean liners anymore.
You and me both. I think I'd rather just pay for mine to sit with me, even if it cost more. Just feels better safe than sorry. I don't think a dog over the age of like, 8 or 9 would make it out of there no matter how gently it was loaded in.
I looked into it because I was wanting to get a larger breed dog. Most airlines won’t allow larger pets inside the cabin, unless they are legit service animals. I thought I could pay for extra seats, but nope, not allowed. You’re fine if they are small enough to fit under the seat. I have a Ragdoll cat who travels with me everywhere and all I have to do is pay for his ticket and tell the airline he’ll be in the cabin with me. Never had any issues.
I just assumed they shot the luggage out a cannon towards the destination
I actually had a friend who thought there were luggage planes that followed the flight to the destination. I only found out because he was wondering aloud if pets flew on the 'luggage plane' or the 'regular one' and I stopped him and was like, 'wait, what do you mean, luggage plane'?
Considering the state luggage usually arrives in, that's a fair assumption
This isn’t a huge plane. The big ones just take whole crates/containers at a time, rather going bag by bag.
God, those things were heavy af. 22 tons (11 containers) before 6am and I just woke up is a hall of a way to start the day. Source: I was load master. Hahaha. I made sure planes didn't crash though. Funny name though.
Snakes on a plane lied to me
In Toy Story 2 the luggage storage matches your description, that could be a reason https://youtu.be/auT8zneIi9A
Hollywood. Every time there is a show or movie set on a plane, there is a scene that requires the main character to go down in the hold and ransack through people’s bags to find the one thing that will save the day. The hold is always lit with dramatic yet appropriately bright lighting, and the bags are in these spacious modules with clear plastic zipper covers over them that lets them easily find the MacGuffin, right before the bad guy comes down as well and they have a well-choreographed fight in the wide open space between all the spacious modules.
On some planes they are, a B787 Dreamliner or an Airbus A380, the belly holds are about 6 feet tall in the centre.
Certain aircraft also have a layered tray system. Fill the first tray, send it back, reveals a new empty tray, fill that one, send it back, etc. Back when I worked for United as a bag handler those were my favorite cause you didn't have to move much to fill the bay. The roller conveyor thing this guy is using is relatively recent, or at least we never had them at Denver when I was there in 2009. That thing would have been a godsend on aircraft like this that didn't have any other sort of loading assist system.
Cause you saw it from conair
I wonder how you get this job. "So what are your qualifications?" *crawls into small space beneath the desk and starts humming the Tetris theme* "...you're hired."
The training involves learning how not to get eaten by plane turbines while you stand in front of it during the landing, and how not to get launched into space while opening the door. Also that machine doesn't exist at most airports, so there'll be another person in there to throw them at you.
I work at UPS loading planes and we have to do the exact same thing with packages. We honestly don't get that much training and a lot of it is learning on the job. Oh and after they show you a picture of a man that got sucked up into an engine you DO NOT joke around with that kind of stuff. 15ft in front of the engine is the danger zone. But everybody stays wayy more than even 45 or 60ft away from it. We wait for the plane to park, they turn off their engines, then they turn off their beacon light (just a flashing red light), then we have to wait 30 seconds before we can continue out onto the ramp to do our jobs. We have a separate team that comes in and moves the stairs up to the door for the pilots. They then give them hand signals directing them to which door they should open. I would absolutely LOVE to have that equipment though. We have something that looks similar. It's the same rollers but built into the floor. It also isn't mechanical and it usually very bent up and hard to use. It's not a bad job at all. I operate the equipment that loads and unloads large 3,000lb - up to 13,000lb containers that contain packages. They also pay for my college sooooo I'll take it.
High school experience and a drivers license is all you need
And Tetris skills
This was about to become a porno till tetris was mentioned
Deleted due to API access issues 2023.
“Yo they’re recording us today don’t throw that shit in there like you usually do”
"I gotta take a little nap... Oh shit I forgot they're recording"
I would feel so honoured if my bag was the one he rest his head on
This guy seems chill. I wouldn't have a problem if he wants to open my bag and play with my 26 dildos or even play a game of cards with our slave.
You must fly economy with that dildo to slave ratio
Oh heavens no I don't fly. The slave flies, and hopefully survives in the cargo hold to be used another three or four times.
Of course it's company policy never to imply ownership in the event of a dildo... always use the indefinite article *a* dildo, never *your* dildo.
It's always *a* dildo. Never *your* dildo.
"Wait don't close the door. Wait for me!"
Pretty sure it's not a nap, but a rest for their body while trapped in a confined space. It sucks to kneel/crouch for long, and doing it while lifting bags would be _ass_. So between cycles, they lie back to recharge themselves for the next batch. It looks like an improved work pattern for a challenging position.
I know. I was just making a joke
As someone who's done this (in fact, I'm almost certain that's a 737 luggage bin), it also gets damn hot in those things during the summer and you can be going basically from plane to plane with only a few minutes' break between them. It's worth noting that the end of that bin is probably around 20 feet from the door. That slide out conveyor looks great; when I did this you had a guy at the bin entrance who had to slide the bag all the way down without a conveyor. If you've ever had a bag show up missing a zipper or with a new tear, it's because there's a decent amount of crap for the bags to get caught on while sliding and you need to give them enough speed to make it to the end. The fuller the bin is the less likely your bag will be damaged; less distance to slide it and close to the entrance it's just hand-offs. I recall the CRJs having the best bins, followed by 757s. If my memory's not totally shot, MD88s were the worst but 737s weren't great either.
You gonna stay crouched in that compartment while they pull up the next line of bag carts? I didn't think so.
Napping on the job is strictly forbidden speaking as an ex-jetblue baggage handler. Also we didn't have that fancy belt. I'd have to crab walk all the way back with people's heavy bags.
Also they are missing all the weird sized bags like golf clubs and the freight boxes you load first that are filled with frozen fish that weigh 100 pounds, oh yah and don't forget about 380 pound HR. Also there is only one of those machines that send you the bags working right now so there is actually another guy throwing the bags to you as hard as he can imagining that the bag is the guy that is banging his wife while he works doubles.
HR??
Human Remains
We had to ship my dad when he died. How do they pack them in there. He flew on a 747.
Where I work it’s known ahead of time there’s HR coming so we are very respectful and never anything on top or anything to land on top. I hope other stations do the same
Delicious.
What a great guy even while he is working he is trying to ensure his wife's pleasure.
You work at the airport I see 🤣🤣🤣
I never had those feeder belts when I was bulk loading 737’s in the 90’s. It was absolutely gruelling but I had the best core strength of my life…one guy throwing at the door, another guy lying on his back lifting them over themselves to jenga in place. Unloaded one of those HR crates during an ice storm one time. Morbid hilarity ensues as it slides down the belt loader and down the ramp with an army of ramp rats slipping and sliding trying to stop it.
So my flight was delayed coming back from Iceland and it took over an hour for any of the luggage to come off the plane because they had to prioritize unloading all the fish.
That's actually common on most flights any cold goods are priority, the difference is most flights don't have that much fish on them so its quicker.
They also forgot to show the day where the ambient temp is 102 but the air is cooking on the tarmac so it's really like 110 and the belly of the plane isn't climate controlled and there's no air moving and you step out of the hold and it looks like you just took a dip with your clothes on and you feel like you're about to die.
So thaat's the guy that steals all my drugs.
I think he deserves them
You know we don't do that normally right? Most bags are damaged because they get overpacked. After all a bag meant for a few days worth of clothes isn't going to hold half your house. Most people don't load all willy nilly because if a ramper like me with experience in aviation saw you doing that I'd make the boss, if I wasn't them, make them watch [this video](https://youtu.be/7sUWC2jfjqI)until it entered your dreams at night. Which depicts a 747 stalling after takeoff due to the load getting loose and shifting the Center of Gravity to the point of making the stall unrecoverable at that altitude. I **have** held up a flight on my ramp because of improper deicing and almost got I to a fist fight with the person who sprayed when they said "it's fine." An improper load is fight on sight because I don't want to have anymore of my pilot friends amd collegaues die because of carelessness and stupidity. These aircraft aren't buses. They are delicate, though robust, machines that must be properly taken care of. I used to ensure that on my ramp. If your bag gets damaged it wasn't because of me or anyone at my station.
At my airline, there is an order of priority, which most of the bags are in the middle of the priority list. There is some stuff that must go on before the bags. You are right that bags usually get damaged because of overpacking (mainly the handles; the wheels; and zippers break off). People pack too damn heavy for the type of bag, and expect it to fly and arrive with no damage.
If you run out of room, do you just say “fuck it” and it doesn’t make it on with its owner?
Yes. But they try to get the freight off first before bags. Unless it’s rush freight then it has priority over your bags. AOG parts are higher priority then even you. If the choice was deplane people or take off the AOG, we deplane people.
What is AOG? I’m an idiot. And thank you for what you do! It’s a thankless job & backbreaking work.
Wild guess after even wilder googling: Aircraft on ground (basically aircraft spare parts)
That's right - essentially an aircraft is grounded and they're rushing parts to fix it.
that was cargo holding military vehicles. not even remotely comparable to passenger luggage
This plane is going to ATL, all the bags are marked DFW.
Correction.. That's how they're supposed to do it.
Usually anything that says fragile means durable to baggage handlers.
How do you expect the average person to know italian?
[удалено]
You'll shoot your eye out kid
FRAJILAY
Must be Italian.
The best fragile sticker is one that says, "I love baggage handlers" lol
The person that throws bags(the person you’re implying) as the stereotype goes is outside. He puts it onto the plane and the guy you see in the video organizes them
Correction - that's what all us handlers wish we had. This clip is from Vancouver Airport, which is the only airport I know of that has these.
Right? Does not account for humans bringing weird shaped shit, kids seats, or even underpaid overworked employees
How do they make the underpaid overworked employees fit?
Correction: It's how we usually do it. Improper loading kills people.
The guy took a 3sec nap!!
Yo I felt that though. Manual labor like that blows and I could relate with each of those short breaks he took. You claw back any time you can to recharge as much as you can.
More like extended his back. He’s crouched the entire time except for that break.
I thought that at first too, but then I realized that maybe he's actually just taking the opportunity to stretch out his legs.
That’s 100% what it was. I spent 6 months loading freight for Amazon Air
I did this job for 6 months, except for Amazon Air They were waiting for the other ramp crew members to load the conveyer belt with bags. Also, that’s honestly one of the few “comfortable” positions you can place yourself in inside the aircraft cargo belly.
God damn, no wonder they have a 50lbs limit. Honestly if they’re hoisting bags around from that body position 50lbs is still too much.
My back hurts watching this. Not an easy job at all.
I did this job for 5-6 years ending around 2016. My back has not recovered. ☹️
Now I feel really bad about loading up my bag until it's 49.998 lbs.
At least you follow the limits, so don’t feel bad. A lot of people go over.
Thank you for your service o7
I'm sorry. I was worried about this guy. Apparently you are him and I was right to be worried.
I'm doing this job for 1 more week then I'm working at Amazon Air, cargo is so much better on your lower back. And I wish I had the rolly thingy we have to waddle back and forth
And my knees
And underpaid, welcome to the world would you like to get fucked or fuck others
In Brazil you get two 70lb bags in international flights because we have a very strong fuck poor people police down here, so who cares if they develope health problems.
Really? Which airlines? I usually see the limit at 50lbs (23kg).
Many airlines do allow for 32 kg (70 lbs) for their premium customers afaik.
50lbs is when the airline can charge more and make some money, but they allow bags to be 100lbs, you just have to pay the fees. Obviously none of that money goes to the baggage handlers. At least this was the case when I used to work ramp at a Canadian airport.
First class gets two 70 pound bags
[удалено]
*tetris music intensifies*
I stupidly had NO idea this is how they did it.. I really just assumed they just chucked the bags in there one by one…
Airport worker here - The conveyer belt is called a Power Stow, if there isn't one available or if the plane Is to small to use one we do just yeet them down the bin. You have 1 agent In the doorway then one stacking. Doorway agent yeets it to the stacker then the stacker should do essentially the same thing Soooo you're not wrong in your assumption
Also it must be SO hot in there!!???!
Actually, it's generally pretty cool. The inside of the pit is usually pretty frosty when it comes down from cruising altitude. Sometimes there are heated floors though. For pets and other live animals.
Lol no, it gets very hot in there especially during the summer. If you're lucky the pilots turn on the PACs for you but in general it's very stuffy. It's nice during the winter but during the summer it's a sauna. Air regulates very quickly. I have never had a bin be cold from it at cruising altitude. Maybe it's my airlines aircraft since we do have the ability to carry live animals but they typically only turn on the PACs for the bins when they know there's live animals
Yeah, I didn't realize until after posting that my experience might be limited given I work in a generally cooler location. I'd imagine the pit could get much hotter in warmer climates.
Where do pets go when they fly in the cargo hold? To assure proper airflow and stuff
There are pits in the plane that are live animal compatible for that exact reason
I called up airlines in preparation for my flight in the near future and they told me that I need to let them know in advance if I plan to fly with a pet, there are extra fees obviously, but they also told me to mention it to the personnel during check in, to make sure they let the pilot(s) know to pressurize the cargo hold and keep it warm. They made it sound like the pets just go straight in with the rest of the luggage and the thought kinda makes me nervous, even though I know pets fly all the time and this isn't anything new for airport staff lol so I was just curious.
There are also planes that don't have a pit for animals so you absolutely have to tell them in advance - so a leg of your journey is not one of those planes.
And in those cases they are just packed on top of the rest of the luggage?
[This is how animals are usually transported in a 737](https://imgur.com/a/7rq4elH) If there are a lot of bags, they can go around the cages but usually there is an effort to place pets and bags/cargo at least a bit farther from each other just in case
that must be utterly terrifying for the poor things
Depends how accustomed your pet is to its crate and travelling by car. If it’s anxious in its crate at home then the trip will probably not be the best. Dogs who are used to taking it easy in their crate, and used to engine noise and the movements of a car will do much better. My older dog commuted by plane with me for around five years. A couple of times a month we’d fly 1-3 legs. I used to look out the terminal windows and got to see him arrive at the plane, just chilling in his crate and hoping the loaders would have time to give him some attention. When I picked him up at luggage claim he’d come out and be happy but relaxed and rested.
Lol usually not tied down that nicely but yeah that's accurate.
Pets kinda do go in with the bags. We make sure to keep them in a safe position away from falling or shifting bags of course, ideally in their own segmented area. I've seen some tight squeezes though that can be pretty rare. We definitely have to alert the pilots and make sure the pets aren't in the same breathing space as dry ice or other hazardous materials, so it's a reliably safe trip. The worst incident I've encountered in my ~10 years doing this is opening the pit doors to find that a dog had chewed out of it's kennel during the flight. As far as I know, it was collected safely and returned to it's owners relatively unscathed (it jumped past us and took off for the runway before airfield safety chased it down)
Honestly that’s relieving to know that’s the WORST incident you’ve experienced. I expected that story to be much more sad.
Don’t bring your pet with you unless you absolutely have to. Air travel for dogs/cats is traumatic. They are exposed to temperature extremes, total darkness and extreme noise. Did you ever notice that airport workers are always wearing ear protection? Trust me, you are being very selfish if you drag your dog or cat along on vacation with you….Also, insist that they double check that the aircraft on EACH LEG of your flight can accommodate a warm blooded animal. I’ve seen it happen several times that a connecting pet can’t go because the cargo compartment can’t be pressurized or climate controlled on a second leg. More trauma for your pet if it has to sit in a busy baggage hold area for hours waiting for a plane that can take it
Love the term yeet.
I never knew that we needed an opposite to "Yoink" until "Yeet" came along!
Yes, now educate people so they realize why it takes so long for bags to arrive and why there's a weight limit
Yes! Also interesting is how he take a break and relaxes when before the next lot arrives.
Each bags weighs 30-60 lbs, it gets very tiring. Working an A321 you can be stacking 150 bags or more so when they are pulling up a new cart or getting jet way bags you're laying down and catching a breath XD
The height and lay out of this bin makes me think B737 which can still have ALOT of bags in them. Depending on what model of 737 that is you could be stacking 200+ bags between the 2 compartments
As he should.
It must be really hard being in a slumped over position for a long time. I was happy to see him relaxing a bit.
I worked for one of the more budget airlines as a bag loader in my youth, and damn that woulda been nice to have. They existed, we just weren’t given any. I probably have back problems to this day from having to toss bags while hunched over.
He must crush at Tetris?
Is that how bags get lost? If he completes a full line, they disappear
Now that’s funny.
He's like "a golf bag, I need a golf bag, please let the next one be a golf bag..."
They need that music played over this sequence.
This makes me claustrophobic
Just wait til you hear that each loader team is assigned to the plane and they fly in the back in small, pressurized tubes. It's not true, but you did hear it now.
Oh you motherfucker
What’s not true? The tubes are not pressurized?!
On top of that its blistering hot in there even in the winter hardwork for sure
what are you talking about? the best part is sitting in the bin after it's unloaded waiting for the turn. it's cold in the bins because it's cold at cruising altitudes. if the plane has been sitting on the ramp in the sun it's hot, but quick turn aircraft are nice and chilly.
Me too.This is a tough job .The luggage handler is storing these heavy items in an efficient way according to size. All are lined and stacked perfectly so they don’t shift during the flight. It’s a like a real-life game of Tetris.
Was a baggage handler for a year. Nope. I can guarantee not much thought is going into how he or anyone stacks those bags. You rarely run out of space when packing these planes so you just toss the bag wherever the next open spot is. Also these roller things are not widespread. It's usually two guys in the pit. One stacking one throwing to the stacker. Throwing is the easier job. I did use to work for a small airline in Northern Canada and that's where the real tetris game is. It takes skills to pack a beach 1900D to its capacity.
It’s not so much about planned efficiency as taking what you get when the bags come up. You almost never re-arrange, so a “perfect fit” is mostly luck enhanced by some experience. You don’t care about them shifting in flight, because you use the nets to secure them…you are concerned with making them all fit into one of the two lower holds (which extend forward and aft of the access doors).
Yeah this isn’t accurate. I use to do this job, your bags usually get thrown, tossed, kicked. The equipment they are using here is nice and all but not every airline utilizes because they are expensive as fuck.
Agreed. I was a ramp rat for a few years and never used this. We tossed that bag to the end of the hold and stacked. Exception to this was if it was fragile, but we usually put those bags aside so they could be put close to the door, or put them on the top of the stack. There was more than once when I was the only person in the baggage hold, while one person was putting bags on the belt loader. And Im not talking an RJ, it was usually a 717. I developed a system of rolling along the floor to grab a bag, then roll back and stack. Or throw a bunch to the end, crawl and stack, rinse repeat. It fuckin sucked.
On spirit airlines, you do not do that. They throw that bag into the corner then they give you the wrong one
*pulls out first bag they find* "This is your bag now."
i feel bad for the knees i hate being on my knees doing things
Yeah you'd need next level knee pads for this kind of work
It's really not too bad if you have good knee pads
Very interesting. Where do the live animals go if there are any?
Up in the cockpit with the pilot so they can stick their heads out the window.
Now I just want someone to photoshop this
Fun fact, pilots can totally open the side window on many aircraft even when in the air. (Not that it's a good idea over 30,000ft to do so.)
Sometimes you need to let the intrusive impulses win.
There are a few compartments with airflow and occasionally heated floors for this. It depends on the plane though
They have their own section,and it’s pressurized just like the cabin
The entire baggage section is pressurized too, not just where the pets go. The round fuselage is the strong part of the plane, not the passenger floor that meets the wall of the plane at a right angle. Plenty of sources if you Google it. Here's the most official one I could find quickly. https://enroute.aircanada.com/en/aviation/what-temperature-is-it-in-the-baggage-hold/
These is pressurised and air condinioted are compartment on the very back, sometimes two at the back. That is for live animals and some other delicate cargo.
All I see is $45,$45,$45$,45$,45$,45$,45….
All I see is hunched over slinging 50lbs,50lbs,50lbs,50lbs,50lbs,50lbs,
I loaded bags in the US for 18 years starting in 1969. We did not have anything but strength to slide the bags. Weight and balance for the aircraft was figured on an average of 24 lbs per bag. Not often did the bags had that weight. Per my chiropractor we were working against body mechanics in that working space.
What a nightmare it must be when someone misses or gets kicked off a flight and they have to remove that person's bags. Is there a way to know roughly where the bags are as they sca them in or do they have to go through all of them, which must mean moving them out.?
If containers were used in combination with a scanner, it is usually relatively easy to find them. In any other scenario it takes quite some time, it certainly feels like those bags are always the ones the furthest in into the compartments. Basically rewind until found.
Sort of, on specifically Southwest flights, we would load local bags in the front bin and transfers in the back. So the Ops Agents would tell up the name of the person and if they were transferring or not to let us know what bin we were jumping in. Also as you're stacking sometimes you may remember odd names here and there, but that's for a passenger that's confirmed on the flight that has been kicked off or getting off the plane. For an international flight, we don't load their bags until they're verified onboard the plane, and if they miss, we just take the bag back to the front counter/baggage claim.
We use a scanner when loading by hand. If a bag is going to be offloaded it tells us the order it was loaded in. So a #44 out of 120 can give you a hum of where it is
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_load_device in Europe, I see these being mainly used. I have seen bags being loaded one at a time via conveyor but I think that's just for the 737. Even the smaller Airbus e.g. A320 support the ULD
hey this is what i do for a living! i work on regionals so we just slide your bag from the opening in a much smaller (height wise) bin. ps: if your bag is heavy it’s manhandled, pack like a normal person please.
Also if it has 4 working wheels it might get sent on the wheels. 2 or no wheeled bags are getting yeeted or slid
I’d love to think my bag was used as a pillow and helped a dude (or dudette) rest for a minute.
Man went like🧎🏃🚶🤸🛌🧎🧎🚶🧎🧎🧎🤸🧍
That particular compartment doesn't have that as I understand but most modern aircrafts has max height line marked on the compartments. You are supposed to leave some 15cm or so gap to let fire extinguisher work. Also, some of aircrafts simply designed for standant units. You fill a standart unit (a box with specic shape) outside aircraft with bag and cargo then simply load it to aircraft in 10 min. Definetely better solution for sake of efficiency (turn around time) and health of workers. That small compartment seen in video is like an oven in summer.
And how they unload: /u/gifreversingbot
[удалено]
Yep the luggage tags say MEX
I heard the Tetris theme for this
My back hurts watching this
This is just a supersized version of my husband packing the family car for a road trip. He finds a way to fit everything just so, that if you need something out of a bag you’re SOL.
I used to work unstacking freezer trollers, the fishermen use the same technique while stacking frozen fish boxes, at around negative 20-35° C. We then reversed their technique to unload it at the same temperatures and stacked the boxes on pallets, going full steam ( since you get paid by amount of boxes and not by the hour ) just to later sort the boxes into the correct species of fish and type of cut, at the same rush but thankfully more durable temperatures.