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Finger-pointing continues in wake of viral baggage-toss video

Finger-pointing continues in wake of viral baggage-toss video

While it looks like the Air Canada baggage handlers involved in the now-infamous carry-on baggage-bombing incident will be fired, the finger pointing has not stopped.

Their union says the airline is at fault for its loose enforcement of carry-on restrictions, forcing handlers to deal quickly with increasing amounts of excess carry-on bags being checked at the gate so as not to delay the flight.

That apparently means getting creative with how they shift those bags, which were likely carried on in the first place because they contained something valuable of fragile.

Even passengers come in for criticism for ignoring the limits and for whipping out their smart phones at the slightest provocation.

[ Related: Baggage handlers to be fired over luggage incident, airline says ]

It all started with a phone video shot by traveller Dwayne Stewart as he waited for his Air Canada flight to take off from Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

Shooting out the window from his seat, Stewart watched as a baggage handler removing excess carry-on luggage to be shifted into the plane's cargo bay. Instead of carrying bags down the steps from the loading ramp, they were dropped an estimated 20 feet into a cart below.

Out came Stewart's smart phone and he recorded the incident for posterity, along with his play-by-play commentary.

The video was quickly uploaded to YouTube, where it's had more than 1.7 million views since being published April 17.

Air Canada reacted quickly, announcing the two handlers involved in the baggage transfer were being suspended and likely fired aft the airline had completed its investigation.

"Their actions clearly contravened our standard baggage-handling procedures which require gate-checked bags to be hand-carried to the ramp," spokeswoman Isabelle Arthur told CTV News.

Air Canada stressed sending the bags via an aerial shortcut was not an acceptable practice, though some cynical travellers suspected it's just the first instance this time-saving approach has been documented.

A couple of days ago, Air Canada retweeted a comment by CBC comedian Rick Mercer, who praised the way the airline handled his TV crew's equipment on countless flights.

But the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers told The Canadian Press the incident was the result of pressure from Air Canada to move the excess carry-on bags quickly to avoid delaying the flight.

The handlers simply didn't have time to run down the steep metal stairs, bags in hand, safely with so many pieces and still ensure the plane left on time.

"Management is pushing them to get the planes out on time," union spokesman Bill Trbovich told CP.

Trbovich also suggested workers resent the fact travellers have them under an electronic magnifying glass as they do their jobs.

"You’re constantly looking over your shoulder," he said.

"You go about your business trying to do your job and you’ve got to be cognizant of where you don’t hurt yourself or fall down, and to worry about whether somebody’s taking your picture through an airplane window."

This wouldn't be a problem if the airline strictly enforced size limits for carry-on bags, Trbovich said.

Some travellers interviewed by Vancouver radio station News1130 admitted they push the envelope when it comes to carry-on.

“[I take] two carry-ons and a big handbag — like, a big handbag — without a problem," said one woman. "But it’s not an excuse for the way they handle luggage; there’s no excuse for that.”

[ Related: Air Canada leaves baggage behind intentionally ]

But it seems the root of the problem goes much deeper than baggage cheaters and harried handlers. Why are people carrying so much luggage on board instead of checking it?

I suspect the problem started to grow when airlines began charging passengers to check luggage. Air Canada checks the first bag free on domestic flights, charges $20 for the second and $100 for each additional bag. The fee rises on international flights.

Travellers have also become leery of the way their checked baggage is handled, suspecting it sometimes gets treated the same as those now-notorious carry-on bags. Worse, they could also be rifled by sticky-fingered baggage handlers.

Combine the extra costs with the prospect of bags being molested with the airlines' desire to stuff more bums in aircraft seats and the excess carry-on issue reaches critical mass.

A perceptive post by Shashank Nigam on SimpliFlying points out the baggage-tossing incident involved one of Air Canada's new Boeing 777-300ER jets, which have a high-density seating configuration, meaning less storage under the seat and more competition for space in the overhead storage bins.

"According to Seatguru, these aircraft have 398 Economy seats, which are 17” wide, down from the 18.5” wide 302 seats they had previously," Nigam wrote. "The higher number of seats leads to lots of passengers having to check-in bags at the gate, since the overhead space is full."

Air Canada says gate-checked bags are supposed to be hand-carried to the ramp for transfer to the cargo bay.

"That seems fine in a normal scenario, where there might be 5-10 bags that can’t fit in the overhead bins," Nigam wrote. "But the new seat configurations mean that up to 90 bags may need to be checked gate-side for each flight.

"Is it practical then to expect the handlers to walk up and down the stairs carrying one bag at a time? Perhaps not."

Airlines need to think more deeply about the impact of high-density seating, he said. That should include the use of different check-in procedures when a flight is full, such as allowing passengers to check an extra bag for free and mandating automated luggage belts at the loading gate so baggage handlers don't have to hump them down the stairs.

One thing they can't do is avoid the surveillance their operations now face from their customers.

"It is the age of the connected traveler," Nigam wrote. "And these travelers instantly share with the world what they experience."