Man failed to spot sleeping colleague in aircraft hold
An airport worker who slipped into an aircraft hold for a sleep could have died after he was mistakenly locked in by a colleague shortly before the aircraft was due to take off.
However, he had a lucky escape after a passenger onboard heard loud banging and shouting coming from the man in the locked hold.
A loading supervisor had signed off that the hold was empty without properly checking and was sacked for gross misconduct as a result by his employer, a service provider.
The supervisor sued for unfair dismissal arising from the incident on October 5, 2016, at an unnamed Irish airport.
However, Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) adjudication officer Brian Dalton has thrown out the supervisor’s unfair dismissal claim after finding that a reasonable employer could dismiss an employee for such a serious breach.
In his findings, Mr Dalton stated: “Unless a passenger had heard the loud banging and shouts of that employee, a fatality could have occurred.
“This was a serious incident. The supervisor had a duty to check the hold. His failure to adequately and thoroughly complete that check was a very serious omission.
"The holds were locked, and an employee trapped in the forward hold. The signing of the loading instructions document by the claimant stating that the forward hold was empty was clearly not the case.
“This omission was a serious breach of policy and clearly gave rise to a serious safety incident. On balance a reasonable employer would class this omission as gross misconduct.”
The service provider told the WRC hearing that, if the passenger had not heard the worker’s banging and shouting, “the employee who had slipped into the hold to sleep could have died if the oxygen in that hold had been turned off”.
The employer said: “The forward hold where the employee had slipped in to sleep is small and about 6ft wide.
“The loading supervisor is responsible for signing off for the unloading and the loading of the aircraft. A thorough check would have clearly shown that an employee was asleep in the forward hold.”
The employer argued that checking the hold “is a fundamental safety and security requirement that goes to the heart of passenger safety and security”.
The employer argued that the complainant was found to have breached several key and crucial duties that underpin safety and security.
As part of his unfair dismissal claim, the loading supervisor claimed the company refused to take account of mitigating circumstances concerning the actions of the other employee.
The supervisor claimed that management had failed to move that employee away from active loading when earlier he was found sleeping in a loading truck.
He said he did check the hold and saw no one, and was later shocked to discover there was a man in the aircraft’s hold.
