Reginald Gaskin, a vendor employee baggage handler, apparently became stuck inside the baggage cargo hold of a United Airline passenger jet on Sunday.
Flight
United Express Flight 6060, operated by Mesa Airlines, left Charlotte Douglas International Airport at 2:54 am on New Year’s Day, arriving 4:16 am at Washington Dulles International Airport reached altitudes of 27,000 feet during the hour-and-22 minute flight with an additional passenger. At some stage during the 6060 flight, it was discovered that someone was in the cargo bay. Fire and rescue crews from the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority were present when the plane landed.
WBTV reports that radio traffic showed that Gaskin was not hurt and declined medical treatment after ground crew opened the cargo bay and found him.
Gaskin was wearing the vendors’ G2 Secure Staff, baggage handler uniform and possessed proper documentation that was left in his locker at the Charlotte Douglass International Airport. G2 Secure Staff is headquartered in Irving, Texas, G2 Secure Staff, LLC employs over 6,000 aviation service professionals at 54 top traveled airports throughout the United States. They have been contacted by News4 for comment, but no reply has been issued yet.
Security breach or mishap?
Initially, authorities were discerning whether this was a security breach or just a mishap.
Since then they have determined this was an unfortunate accident that posed no danger. United Airlines confirmed Gaskin’s identity as a G2 Secure Staff employee. According to CNN, United Airlines released the following statement, “United Express flight 6060 operated by Mesa Airlines from Charlotte Douglas to Washington-Dulles (IAD) landed safely at IAD yesterday.
Once at the gate, an employee of the airline's ground handling vendor was found unharmed in the aircraft's cargo hold. We are looking into what happened.”
United is the world’s biggest airline as determined by the amount of cities and destinations provided. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, the operations cover a network of domestic and international itineraries. United Airlines maintains a substantial presence in the Asia-Pacific industry sector.
