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Baggage handlers' latest gaffe: Dog tossed aboard jet
By Cheryl Phillips
Seattle Times staff reporter
Saturday night, just a day after Alaska Airlines increased its monitoring of
ramp operations at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, a baggage worker
threw a crate containing a border collie into the cargo hold of a plane
instead of using a conveyor belt.
The dog's owner, Lisa Ross of Woodinville, was watching from inside the
terminal around 11 p.m. when a ramp worker picked up the crate holding her
40-pound dog, Jace, tipped it at a 45-degree angle and then heaved it over
his head into the jet.
The baggage worker is an employee of Menzies Aviation, an Alaska contractor
blamed for damaging two Alaska Airlines jets on the ground at Sea-Tac in the
past three weeks. As a result of those earlier incidents, Menzies said it
was flying 25 supervisors to Seattle to work alongside Menzies' local
workers to improve the operation. Also, Alaska said Friday it was assigning
six extra Alaska Airlines employees to supervise ramp operations for each
shift.
But Ross saw no supervisors.
"My dog was basically being slammed from level to 45 degrees and projected
into the plane," Ross said. "It was just horrifying to see."
The worker then walked to Ross' other dog, an Australian shepherd named
Tucker, and tried to lift his crate but couldn't, Ross said. Workers used a
belt loader for the 50-pound dog, according to Ross and an Alaska incident
report.
Ross complained to an Alaska gate agent, who went down to the tarmac and
spoke with the workers. They admitted throwing a dog but said it was a
different one, Ross said. She noted that she uses brightly colored crates so
she can spot her dogs when she flies. She also puts cards with the dogs'
pictures on each crate to make sure workers know what they are moving.
After Ross complained, her dogs were unloaded and she postponed her flight
until today. She had been on her way to a dog competition in Florida. She's
now taking only Tucker because she thinks he's too heavy to be thrown.
While Alaska has increased its supervision of Menzies employees, the six
Alaska employees on duty each shift must cover 26 gates, said Amanda Tobin,
an Alaska spokeswoman.
Tobin said the airline is investigating the incident and has communicated
its concern to senior managers at Menzies. The airline transports more than
35,000 pets a year, she said.
A Menzies employee in the company's Seattle office referred all questions to
a London-based Menzies spokesman. Phone calls to that spokesman were not
returned.
This week, four senior executives with Menzies are leading a 90-day review
of the contractor's operations at Sea-Tac. In May, Alaska said it would save
$13.7 million a year by outsourcing the Sea-Tac baggage work to Menzies.
An Alaska supervisor told Ross that the airline would pay for any
veterinarian bills, according to the Alaska incident report. "I do not know
why the ramp agents didn't use a belt loader when boarding the first dog
except they must of [sic] been in a hurry," the supervisor wrote in the
report.
Ross said Jace was shaking and panting and afraid to go back into his crate
when she unloaded him, but he seems to be uninjured. Her concern now is how
well he will travel in the future, she said.
"I just don't want it to happen again."
Cheryl Phillips: 206-464-2411 or
cphillips@seattletimes.com