handler

The clip, featuring a Qatar Airways wide-body aircraft, was filmed at Madrid–Barajas Airport in Spain. The zoomed-in footage, filmed from a terminal window, shows the ground staff member outside the plane’s rear door.

A baggage handler was caught on camera hurling luggage in scenes have left social media users divided.

The zoomed-in footage, filmed from a terminal window, shows the ground staff member outside the plane’s rear door. He can be seen catching items tossed by a colleague and flinging them on.

The clip, featuring a Qatar Airways wide-body aircraft, was filmed at Madrid–Barajas Airport in Spain. The video-taker joked: “I’ll put this bottle of wine in the suitcase, I don’t think it’ll break…”

Social media users were quick to react to the clip. “This video should reach his company so they can see how well this man works,” one said.

OPINION

Milo Boyd

READ MORE: Ryanair passenger ‘stunned’ to receive ‘worst food ever’ on flight

Raquel questioned: “Is that what we pay for checked baggage for?” While Mónica vented: “This only happens in Spain. I’ve never seen luggage treated so badly anywhere else, it’s unbelievable. Almost every time we come back from a trip, the suitcases arrive wrecked.”

Analú said: “Honestly, that’s a disgrace. I’m sure there are plenty of unemployed people who would be happy to do that job properly.”

But not everyone was convinced the baggage handler was in the wrong.

“For those who’ve never flown or even seen a plane and criticise without knowing: they’re just taking out the blankets to clean the cabin, it’s not luggage,” one commenter pointed out.

Pablo added: “Suitcases aren’t unloaded at the passenger doors.” And Nicolás concluded: “Honestly, I think he’s doing everything right – he’s very efficient at his job.”

Madrid–Barajas Airport and Qatar Airways have been approached for comment.

The incident is not the only aviation-related outrage to ruffle feathers. Declan Minogue and his wife Claire Minogue, 61, were travelling back from Faro to Dublin Airport on 21 July after seven relaxing nights in Portugal. The 63-year-old felt a bit of hunger coming on, so he decided to order the £5.90 Hot Ham and Cheese Panini from a flight attendant.

However, it was not the hunger-busting snack he had hoped for. Decland claims he was ‘stunned’ to open it up and discover just one piece of ham and the ‘tiniest bit of cheese’ with no butter. Despite polishing off the ‘bland’ sandwich that he compared to ‘something out of Oliver Twist,’ Declan claims he was forced to buy more food when he landed because he was still hungry.

Taking to social media, the dad-of-two shared a photo of the sandwich captioned ‘shocking and insulting’.

Declan who lives in Lusk, Dublin, Ireland, said: “It was the worst airplane food ever. It was a massive rip off. I was shocked when I saw it. I got it and I opened it and couldn’t believe it so I took a picture. It had two slices of ham and the tiniest bit of cheese and the cheese was like butter. There was no substance to it. I was stunned.”

A baggage handler has shared the ‘worst’ types of suitcases to take on a plane – and those that are more likely to get to your destination unscathed

A baggage handler has named the “worst” types of luggage to use when jetting off abroad, and also revealed which are more likely to arrive in one piece. With a plethora of suitcase options out there, picking the perfect travel companion can be quite the conundrum.

Thankfully, social media platforms like TikTok and Reddit have become goldmines for savvy travel advice, with airport staff dishing out their best-kept secrets to ensure your belongings stay intact during transit. On Reddit, a user by the name of Adam, who works as a baggage handler, opened up the floor for any burning questions.

A curious traveller inquired: “Any tips for avoiding baggage being lost or destroyed? And best/worst types of suitcases/bags?”

Adam’s top tip for dodging misplaced bags was simple: name tags. He pointed out that many bags look the same and often end up on the same flight, saying: “We see a lot of bags that look exactly identical to one another going on the same flight.”

He suggested personalising your luggage with a tag bearing your name and address, making it easy to identify as yours. Other recommendations included distinctive straps wrapped around the bag, reports the Express.

For those keen to keep their cases from harm, he recommended opting for luggage that boasts “four good wheels, with soft lining on the inside and a hard outer shell.”

When another user quizzed, “Why do you hate my bag?” Adam had a clear response: “Is your bag one with a dodgy wheel? One with no wheels at all? One with no proper handholds? Those are some of the bags I really, really hate.”

A curious traveller posed the question: “Hard case bags or cloth bags? Which is better?” To which the airline employee replied: “If you don’t mind your stuff being compressed, then soft case will do you fine, these tend to be more space efficient in the hold.”

The airport worker shared some savvy tips for safeguarding breakables while flying, advising: “If you have anything kinda fragile, you want a hard case to keep that stuff protected.”

When quizzed about the best and worst types of luggage to use, Adam revealed: “Some of the worst bags to buy are the ones which have no wheels.”

He explained the logistics behind the scenes at his airline: “In my airline, none of our holds are bin loaded, so we have to manually stack the bags inside each hold, and they can get fairly long. If your bag has at least 2 high quality wheels, then it allows us to roll them down the hold quickly, making it easier for us.”

Adam highlighted the importance of efficiency, noting: “Otherwise, we have to throw the bags in order to keep to the scheduled times.”

He confessed his pet peeve when it comes to luggage: “My absolute least favourite bags are the ones that have 4 wheels, but one of them is seized up, so we try to roll it down, but it just falls over after moving 6 inches.”