Says Contract Company Is Safe; Passengers, Pilots Disagree

Alaska Airlines said Thursday the airline is standing by the company whose employee accidently rammed a baggage tug into the side of an MD-80 airliner Monday while it was at the gate in Seattle. The mishap left a crease in the plane's skin that later grew into a foot-long hole once the plane climbed to altitude.

Menzies Aviation, the London-based company contracted by Alaska Airlines to handle baggage-loading duties at Sea-Tac, has suspended the employee involved and is said to be taking steps to insure the situation won't happen again -- while Alaska's pilots, television pundits, and many passengers onboard the flight are wondering why the incident happened in the first place.

"The enraging fact is that a non-union baggage handler ran into the side of the plane moments prior to take-off..." wrote one passenger, Jeremy Hermanns, on his blog after the incident, "and that it was never reported."

"Anything that compromises safety -- for ourselves, our crew, or our passengers -- is unacceptable,” said Paul Emmert, vice chairman of Alaska Airlines’ pilots union. "When it’s a situation that easily could have been avoided, it makes it that much more so."

Representatives with the airline stated the unnamed employee saw the crease in the airliner, but was too far away (about 10 feet) to determine the damage was serious enough to report. A heavy rain was also reportedly falling at the time of the mishap.

Alaska issued a statement saying the airline will continue to use workers from Menzies, which were hired by the airline in May to replace 472 unionized workers at Sea-Tac.

"Menzies has been very responsive to our concerns," said Alaska spokeswoman Caroline Boren to the Tacoma (WA) News Tribune. "Together we and Menzies are taking steps to ensure this incident won’t happen again."

Boren added Menzies baggage handlers and ramp workers were sent Wednesday to a special three-day retraining session. Part of that training, according to those representatives, emphasizes the importance of reporting any run-ins between equipment and planes.

As was reported earlier this week in Aero-News, Menzies has been the subject of controversy even before Monday's incident. Alaska’s on-time arrival rate dropped sharply after Menzies took over baggage handling and other ramp duties from 472 unionized workers in May. Lost baggage claims also rose steeply.

Monday's incident wasn't the first time a run-in between baggage-loading equipment and an aircraft occurred; in fact, it was the 13th such incident reported this year, according to the News Tribune. (Although that may not be completely fair to Menzies, as Alaska suffered 11 such incidents last year, with company employees.) No other major flight incidents were reported due to those previous mishaps.

Former Menzies workers told the newspaper the company was not training workers at Sea-Tac well, and that turnover was steep.

For their part, representatives from Alaska Airlines and Menzies have acknowledged those earlier problems, but say conditions have gotten much better as ground crews become more familiar with Alaska's operations at Sea-Tac.

None of the 140 passengers onboard the airplane Monday were injured in the incident.

FMI: www.alaskaairlines.com, www.menziesaviation.com, www.jeremyhermanns.org