The ground handlers are coming in for a lot of stick here but it is not always there fault and some do take a pride in what they do and in the past have reported to me things that could have been a flight saftey hazard.
The general level of dis-respect for them in the industry is high and is reflected on this forum ,i once saw a handler drive a belt loader up to an aircraft cargo door stop apply the hand brake dis-engage the road wheel drive and select the belt and then get off the driving seat and move to away to start loading the baggage , the belt loader then jumped forward and struck the aircraft.
The incident was attended by the police ,airport duty manager and the company duty manager all had one aim and that was to nail some one for the damage ,the easy target was the driver of the belt loader and all of the above engaged in an agressive questioning of the man to a point at which he would have probably admitted to the great train robbery it was to the authoritys utter dismay when i pointed out that i had witnessed the incident and that he had carried out his dutys properly.
In the following weeks i had three further visits from the authoritys to check if i had got may statment "correct".
With the "letts nail some poor sod " attitude of the airport and company management along with the aggressive police attitude it is a wonder and to the great credit of the ground handlers that damage gets reported.
Ramp damage is a great problem to the industry and to a great extent lack of training is at the root of most of the damage ,training is of course a management responsability.......I wonder if this and the agressive management attitude are conected ?
[ 03 December 2001: Message edited by: A and C ]edited for spelling
[ 03 December 2001: Message edited by: A and C ]