A call from the Cargo Hold

[Capt Groper]

Ok here's an interesting radio call heard after T/O from LHR.

"LHR Departures - this is BA XYZ with an unusual situation"
BA XYZ go ahead"
BA XYZ we have just had a call from the cargo compartment (not specified if an internal interphone or external modile) to say somebody may be down there - we wish to enter a hold to ascertain the legitimacy of this phone call"

Did any dody else hear this conversation mid afternoon on 14th?

Good for a LOFT exercise.

[Huck]

This used to be a pretty common practical joke, played on new flight attendants, back in the day.....

[JazzyKex]

Maybe the call was to the crew from the cargo DEPARTMENT via acars/satphone to say there was a possibility someone was in the hold of the aircraft and the crew planned on taking up a hold to contact the company and find out what was going on.

Had the call on the radio/satphone/acars come from a legitimate source or had someone sent a 'prank' message before planning the next course of action?

Not sure how easy it easy to button up the bulk cargo hold on a big aircraft without checking it was empty of self loading freight!

Jazzy

[Just a spotter]

There was an incident at DUB some years back (2005 IIRC) where a baggage handler was locked into the hold of an EI 330 bound for the US. Seems he'd entered the hold to check items, but may not have told anyone. When he realised the aircraft was taxiing he used his mobile to call ops/tower and have the aircraft return to stand.

JAS

[SMT Member]

Has happened before, but can't recall any where the poor sods haven't managed attracting a lot of noisy attention, to force a return prior to take-off. Stories abount deeply traumatized ramp workers doing very long runners after being let out, are fairly common.

Edit due post above:
Suppose it's a better idea using a phone rather than beating the crap out the aeroplane with your bare fists.

[TBSC]

A loader managed to travel from BUD to ZRH in the cargo hold of an Avro in the 90's. He was concentrating on piling bags very carefully :E and the technician closed the door. His ZRH-BUD flight was a bit more comfortable on business class accompanied by policemen. :D

[reverserunlocked]

A good story to tell the kids if it happened to you but in all seriousness could it turn out badly? An unheated hold on a proper long haul flight can't be a pleasant place to spend 9 or 10 hours. What kind of temps does the hold get to in the cruise?

[Spooky 2]

I had a ramper get locked in the fwd hold of a 727 and ride from PDX to SLC once upon a time. About a two hour flight for him to get his story straight before we landed.

[con-pilot]

I had a ramper get locked in the fwd hold of a 727 and ride from PDX to SLC once upon a time. About a two hour flight for him to get his story straight before we landed.

Good thing for him you didn't use the 'puppy snuffer' switch. :p

[ABO944]

Temperature hovers around the freezing mark, unless it was a heated hold in which case he would have been nice 'n cosy.

[Airbubba]

Good thing for him you didn't use the 'puppy snuffer' switch.

Check essential!

Unlike the modern engines, the old JT8D's didn't have a lot of excess bleed air at low power settings so there was a cargo heat switch you could turn off to keep the cabin from climbing when you pulled the power back for descent. Of course, if you left it off for the next leg, it got mighty cold in the cargo hold...

I had a ramper get locked in the fwd hold of a 727 and ride from PDX to SLC once upon a time. About a two hour flight for him to get his story straight before we landed.

This was not unheard of in the 727 from what I remember. Eastern had it happen as did FedEx as I recall. FedEx PR claimed that a FedEx bizjet was dispatched to retrieve the misplaced employee.

A fugitive shipped himself as freight to Texas on a Kitty Hawk 727 a while back:

The Smoking Gun: Archive (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/crateguy1.html)

UPS had a knock on the crew compartment stair door on a 747 out over the Pacific years ago. The guy stayed on the plane in TPE, rode back to ANC and got fired as urban legend over there would have it.

JetBlue had a guy ride in steerage last year on a jungle jet:

JetBlue worker nods off, flies to Boston in cargo hold - Flights: Airfare, flight tracker, delays, miles tracker & airport news - Today in the Sky - USATODAY.com (http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=64875831.blog)

[suninmyeyes]

While on the topic....

Any truth in that folklore story of a bored flight crew member on a 747 freighter that went back to look at a very exclusive custom made Mercedes they were transporting to the far east.

The story goes that having got into the driving seat and pushed a few buttons the security system activated and locked all the doors. He was unable to get out and was only released after the flight had landed.

[clunckdriver]

This might give Ryanair and a few other discount outfits food for thought!

[youngskywalker]

Been there, done it! 1996, locked in an AiruK 146 cargo hold, only released at the VERY last minute by some enthusiastic kicking of the roof and some choice words which cannot be repeated here but most certainly were heard by the pax sitting above me! :eek:

[steamchicken]

A good
story (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/man-denies-james-bondstyle-robbery-of-acircpound15m-from-ba-jet-539597.html) from 2000 - attempt to steal £1.5m from a BA 767 and escape by climbing into box and having it delivered to accomplice.

[con-pilot]

Unlike the modern engines, the old JT8D's didn't have a lot of excess bleed air at low power settings so there was a cargo heat switch you could turn off to keep the cabin from climbing when you pulled the power back for descent. Of course, if you left it off for the next leg, it got mighty cold in the cargo hold...


Just after Hurricane Andrews hit Miami I made four or five trips into Miami, mostly from JAX, with the foward baggage compartment full as much ice as I could carry with the foward cargo heat switch (puppy snuffer) off. I was surprised on just how much ice stayed frozen.

The first couple of days after Andrews hit we were real popular when we landed at MIA.

[Geezers of Nazareth]

As someone who is responsible (hah!) for putting things into the holds of aircraft, can I just say .... complete b0ll0x!

I've been shut in the bulk hold several times, and its a simple job to open it from the inside ... just turn the (internal) handle and pull.

If the aircraft is on the stand, then the open door will/should be noticed by the engineers when they do their final walk-around. If the aircraft has left the stand, then opening the door will set-off all sorts of alarm-bells in the cockpit (there are various sensors around the edge of the door).

The only way that I could see this happening was if the loader fell asleep in the hold (naughty, naughty!), and somebody else closed the hold door. In which case, wtf was he doing asleep in the hold!

[Flightmech]

Geezers,

It's not that simple, not all aircraft types have internal handles:rolleyes:

[Huck]

MD11's have a switch to push - alerts the crew that you're down there.

But no internal handle.

[youngskywalker]

Ah right ok smart arse, would you enliten us as to where the internal handle is in a BAe146 rear cargo hold?

Yeah i just sat in there for a laugh mate!

[Flightmech]

Still waiting Geezers:E

[Mikehotel152]

He would have been fine if it were a 747.

I watched an episode of the A-Team last week in which Murdock and Face hid in the cargo hold before climbing up a ventilation shaft into the main cabin in order to take over the plane.

Easy.;)

Oh, and Murdock was blinded by a gaseous explosion so Hannibal took the controls and landed the 747 manually despite having no previous flying experience. Shows that the 747 is pretty easy to land, huh. :p

[infrequentflyer789]

He would have been fine if it were a 747.

I watched an episode of the A-Team last week in which Murdock and Face hid in the cargo hold before climbing up a ventilation shaft into the main cabin in order to take over the plane.

Easy.;)

Oh, and Murdock was blinded by a gaseous explosion so Hannibal took the controls and landed the 747 manually despite having no previous flying experience. Shows that the 747 is pretty easy to land, huh. :p

You need to remember that what you see in the final film is edited together from many hours of film and many different takes. We have no idea how many 747s they smashed up on the previous takes to get that one good landing shot... :)

[Mikehotel152]

Fair point...never thought of it like that...

[Capt Groper]

suninmyeyes - Yes this did happen some time ago. Capt left flight deck and whilst at the back decided to check out the exotic car. After popping into the driver’s seat and closing the door, its sophisticated alarm locked all the doors.
Now the F/O was concerned as to why the Capt hadn’t returned, cleaver thinking F/O thought that it may be a toxic fumes incapacitation as no sigh of the Captain so elected to divert. The flight, I believe, was from SHJ to FRA and diverted to Istanbul.
Since that incident all vehicles being transported have to have their alarm/security systems deactivated, DG manual.

[suninmyeyes]

Capt Groper

Ahhh, so the story was true. Thanks for that.

[Geezers of Nazareth]

Apologies folks, it seems that I was wrong. (Oops, 'egg on face' moment!). Sorry 'bout that.

However, in my defence, I've only worked on Boeings and Airbuses.

[rampss]

Ha Ha i my crew leader at BA was telling me that story the other day..says he was hiding in the lining,then before landing climbed into the box,which broke coming down the belt, and he fell out , ran away!!!!

[Capt Groper]

rampss - Well well, there was a person down there, trying to get a free ride. :O

[rottenray]

Ha Ha i my crew leader at BA was telling me that story the other day..says he was hiding in the lining,then before landing climbed into the box,which broke coming down the belt, and he fell out , ran away!!!!My paternal grandmother had a bad change of life, and stowed-away on a couple or a few prop jobs back in the early 1950s.

We had to rescue her from MMMX one time, after she had gotten that far and found out she couldn't speak Spanish.

You'd think that the ultra-cheap air travel would stop such foolishness these days...

Oh well.

RR

[rubik101]

Some years ago in Berlin TXL I pushed back and was about to taxi when the No.1 called to say there was a banging noise on the floor next to her seat. We signalled the ground crew to the aircraft and told him to check the fwd hold. A sleepy loader sheepishly exited the hold and waved to us as he trotted back to his crewroom.
We were en-route to TFS so he would have had a long sleep!

[Prober]

Slight thread drift, but to add to the lightheartedness – going LHR - BUD on a pre Big Airline service many years ago, we had a strange incident. A pax sent a msg to the front end saying that he had left his briefcase in the forward lounge just before departure. We rang “Mother” and 10 mins later she called back to say that the redcap, having seen it, had put it into the forward hold just before push-back (this was before the days of neurotic security). As it was an unusual destination at the time, we had a flying spanner with us and he came up with an ingenious solution. The office carpet could be rolled back to reveal a door to the cellar - the radio bay IIRC – and from there another door led to the HYD bay. From there one could access the forward hold.
Off he went and, after many thumps and clouds of dust, he re-emerged, clutching the brief case. We closed the door, rolled the carpet back over it and called the steward. We told him that we had just sent a messenger back to LHR to get the missing item and could he now give it to the passenger with our compliments.
We saw several mouths hanging open, but no one actually said anything, but many years later there was a TV advert featuring a briefcase being delivered in rather improbable circumstances. Maybe there was some connection? :D

P