'We heard screaming and banging': Air Canada crew member gets trapped in cargo hold, cries for help

In a freak accident, an Air Canada crew member got trapped in the cargo hold of a flight which was about to take off from Toronto's Pearson Airport. The incident took place in December but now came to light as travel bloggers on board shared their harrowing experience of being on the flight which ultimately was canceled.

Air Canada issued a statement and confirmed the incident. It said that the doors closed inadvertently when the man was inside but he was rescued and nobody was hurt.




A French Canadian travel blogger Stephanie Curé posted about the incident on Instagram. "I’ve never had that in my life,” a person said in the video. “First time, hopefully the first and last. But that’s the reason we had to taxi — get that person out of the airplane. The good news is that the person is perfectly fine and safe.”

“We had already started taxiing when a baggage crew member was under the aircraft in the cargo and could be heard yelling for help and banging underneath us. Thankfully, he got out safely. I still can’t believe this happened," Curé wrote in the post.

Gabrielle Caron, another passenger, recounted hearing screaming and banging as the crew member was trying to get the attention of other crew members.

The worker who was trapped was a member of their grown crew. Aviation industry analyst John Gradek told CBC that the incident occurred owing to oversight in some procedure. “When somebody closed the door of that baggage hold and permitted the aircraft to be dispatched, there was a task that was not completed of ensuring that the number of people that were standing around this individual dispatching the airplane seemed to be one short, and no action was taken,” said Gradek.

If the aircraft lifted off the ground, the crew member would have survived the flight, the expert said adding that there is no danger of hypothermia.