To prevent souvenirs from getting smashed and exquisite liquor bottles from spillage, fliers label their luggage “fragile.” So, it’s expected that airline staff sighting the “fragile” label would naturally handle the luggage carefully. However, this might not seem to be the case as recently a viral video showed Air India ground staff mishandling musical instruments despite having a fragile label pasted on the luggage. Here’s more to it.
Air India Ground Staff Seen Flinging Musical Instrument Despite “Fragile” Sticker
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Guitarist and sound engineer Ishwar Dwivedi took to Instagram to share a concerning video. The video showed Air India ground staff transferring passengers’ luggage from the aircraft to the cart. The ground staff were seen flinging Ishwar’s gig bag into the luggage cart despite bold red “fragile” stickers pasted on it. The gig bag toppled down and the staff picked it up and placed it again in the luggage cart. “This is how Air India handles our expensive musical instruments,” wrote the guitarist while he tagged Ratan Tata and Air India’s Instagram handles in the caption.
Ishwar urged Instagrammers to share this video with their loved ones and question Air India authorities for their callousness. It’s not just the guitarist’s luggage, the staff were seen swiftly throwing other suitcases into the cart. Having seen Air India staff mishandling the luggage despite a clean “fragile” sticker on it, enraged Netizens. Many shared their own experiences of having received shattered items after a flight journey. They attributed the negligence to the airline’s cost-cutting and inefficient quality control team.
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Instagrammer Says Ground Staff Underpaid & Overworked
Instagrammer @bthoma1439 attempted to share the other side of the story, from the point of view of the ground staff. He said that having worked in the industry for two years, an “insane amount” of labour work is required. The loaders are paid very little by handling agencies and they need to work tirelessly in the hot sun without any shade.
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Moreover, they need to handle 250 to 300 bags per flight each weighing around 12 kg. The ground staff transport luggage of 10 to 12 flights per day. So, @bthoma1439 suggests fliers to avail of other services to transport their “super precious” things safely for a higher price.
Have you faced similar travel mishaps?
Cover Image Courtesy: @ishwar_dwivedi/ Instagram
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