airline employee on tram looking at luggage in lane with caption 'will he save it?' (l) bag on ground with caption 'omg this bag fell off of a car and everyone is the delta lounge is nervously watching it' (c) delta employee reaching over to bag with caption 'surely he's coming to save the day' (r)

@jackatyou/TikTok

‘You don’t know how ramp agents’ jobs work’: Airline workers filmed not picking up dropped luggage, sparking debate

'The wrong person grabbing it only makes it worse.'

 

Braden Bjella

Internet Culture

Posted on Jun 8, 2022

A debate has been sparked on TikTok after a video showing a loose piece on an airport tarmac went viral on the platform.

The video, posted by user Jackie (@jackatyou), shows a piece of luggage that she claims fell off a luggage cart. Over the course of the video, Jackie documents the luggage’s journey, from getting passed by to getting discovered and, eventually, getting loaded onto the plane.

Her video currently has over 4.3 million views.

@jackatyou

How I bonded with everyone at the delta lounge in Nashville

♬ Airplanes – B.o.B feat. Hayley Williams of Paramore

At first, users were outraged by the employees who seemingly passed by the bag without picking it up.

“This. This is why we don’t check bags!” one user wrote.

“I have a flight in like 3 hours and now I’m panicking,” another added.

“This is why I only bring a carry on,” a third stated.

However, others soon jumped in explanations as to why so many employees seemed to overlook the bag.

“Those baggage handlers look like they work for different airlines, they all checked the tag and drove away,” a commenter shared. “Don’t judge, if you’ve never done the job.”

“If all of them did that, it’s obviously some sort of protocol,” a second noted. “If they didn’t want to grab it at all they wouldn’t have stopped to check it.”

“Its simple….. it wasnt a Delta passenger bag,” another speculated. “All the Delta employees left it and the one guy who worked for a different airline took it.”

“I’ve worked on the ramp before. Delta only handles their bags. ATS [Airport Terminal Services] handles interline. Which is pretty much most airlines,” a fourth explained.

Furthermore, several users jumped in to explain that the employees actually appeared to be handling the situation, even if it didn’t look like it from the outside.

“They have headphones, they’re all talking to eachother to get the bag,” a commenter stated. “The wrong person grabbing it only makes it worse.”

Additionally, a few commenters noted that there could be safety concerns about picking up random bags, though those concerns may be moot as the bag’s tags indicate that it has already passed through a security check.

“Yeah because picking up an unmanned random bag and putting it in the plane seems like a grand idea,” a TikToker sarcastically shared.

“Abandoned bags at airports have contained bombs before guys lol. They probably followed some sort of protocol,” another user detailed.

Still, users enjoyed the suspense of Jackie’s video.

“My heart was racing the whole video,” one viewer said.

The Daily Dot reached out to Jackie via TikTok comment and Delta Air Lines via a contact form.


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*First Published: Jun 8, 2022, 8:16 am CDT