Air Canada says two employees may be fired after they were caught on camera tossing passengers' luggage from a stairway to a bin several feet below.
Air Canada said Saturday that they are in the process of identifying the employees involved in the incident, which was caught on camera earlier this week. Pending the outcome of the airline’s investigation, their "employment will be terminated," the airline said in a statement.
"Their actions clearly contravened our standard baggage-handling procedures which require gate-checked bags to be hand-carried to the ramp," Air Canada spokesperson Angela Mah said in a statement to CTV News. "We take matters involving the protection of our customers' personal possessions very seriously."
Video of a baggage-handler carelessly tossing luggage onto a Toronto-to-Vancouver flight has made headlines and sparked anger among individuals who have criticized the airline for poor customer service.
Dwayne Stewart, who shot the video while waiting for his plane to take off in Toronto, said he witnessed more than a dozen bags being tossed from the stairway.
“We just couldn’t believe it kept happening,” Stewart told CTV News. “We thought maybe the guy fell, or it was an accident, but no – it was a plan.
“We don’t expect that as a paying public.”
Stewart posted the video to Youtube on Thursday. As of Saturday evening it had been viewed more than 200,000 times.
The airline has since apologized to Stewart.
The luggage in question was carry-on pieces that couldn't fit in the overhead compartment inside the Air Canada plane, so passengers were told the excess bags would need to be stored with the rest of the checked luggage.
Many passengers can be heard wincing and moaning in the video, as they watch several heavy bags being dropped into the bin – a distance of about 20 feet.
“Well, good thing my computer’s in there,” one passenger is heard saying sarcastically.
With files from CTV Ottawa's Vanessa Lee
