In the 90s I was taking LH LIN-FRA on a 737. The Captain made an announcement asking for volunteers to load baggage. Seems the locals decided to strike. Easy to load the belly of a 737 so a few passengers and the Captain did it.
Originally Posted by
MechEngr
"There was a shortage of ground staff" seems to hide some far more considerable screw-up, sufficiently embarrassing that taking the public relations hit for screwing the passengers was apparently the better choice. So, how rough was it behind the scenes? I'm betting the shortage was forgetting about this flight entirely and they sent the ground staff home early.