First up… have a look at the video below:
The bags appear to be gate checked, and have promptly been tossed from the jetbridge down to the loading area
The location of the incident has not disclosed, but it’s made the media on CBC News.
Air Canada has given a response on the Youtube page:
We apologize for the totally unacceptable mishandling of our passengers’ baggage captured on video. We are in the process of identifying the employees involved whose employment will be terminated pending the outcome of our investigation. Their actions clearly contravened our standard baggage handling procedures which require gate-checked bags to be hand carried to the ramp.
We take matters involving the protection of our customers’ personal possessions very seriously. The actions of these individuals are not representative of the vast majority of our employees who work hard every day to take care of our customers.
The following appeared on Twitter too:
https://twitter.com/roachjames/statuses/457506935953424384
Well, whilst this isn’t on the scale of United Airlines breaks Guitars, it does put forward a salient point when you gate check your luggage…
… do you know exactly what’s happening with it?
This is why you travel with a backpack, and put it under the seat in front of you. Or be an elite and check the bag for free at the counter.
YYZ as usual! Flight from YYZ to YVR on Thursday.
@Sanjeev – checking it at the counter doesn’t guarantee good handling either. US Airways completely tore apart my $2k light kit that I travel with for work last week – it came out of the baggage carousel open with lights hanging out of it and all the custom foam packing ripped out. Of course they say they take no responsibility for it…
My solution going forward is shipping UPS or FedEx ahead of time. An extra $20 is worth it to me.