Union workers firing results in plane damages, increse of incidents

Worker who damaged plane won't face charges:
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About 20 minutes after takeoff Monday, Alaska Airlines Flight 536 to Burbank, Calif., suddenly lost cabin pressure, forcing the pilots to descend rapidly. The plane was stabilized and landed less than 30 minutes later at Sea-Tac Airport, where investigators discovered a foot-long gash in the fuselage....

A ramp worker for Menzies, which contracts with Alaska, has acknowledged that he did not immediately report hitting the plane at the gate with equipment, NTSB investigator Jim Struhsaker said.

After the accident, Alaska reported it to port police as a hit-and-run....

Port officials have stepped carefully around the issue since Alaska fired its regular baggage handlers and replaced them with private contractors from a company based in the United Kingdom.
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Nevertheless, in a previous interview, Parker said port officials were "quite surprised," if not a little upset, after they discovered that its biggest tenant -- Alaska represents almost half of all Sea-Tac passenger traffic -- was not reporting accidents as often as it probably should.

"There are a lot of issues here. Safety, obviously, is the main thing we're concerned about when we talk about ramp incidents," Parker said.

"There are also issues dealing with security and customer service."

In addition to ramp violations, the port had issued 19 security citations to Alaska and Menzies in the first nine months of this year. That figure represents 41 percent of all security citations issued to airlines and ground handlers at Sea-Tac.

When Menzies first came onboard, passengers began noticing, and complaining about, luggage taking an hour or more to get to the baggage-claim terminals.

In June, port police were called to break up a fight between a Menzies driver and a US Airways employee who was almost run over.

Later that month, police responded to a report that Menzies had dropped a kennel with a dog in it three times and later did the same with a cat.

P-I reporter Candace Heckman can be reached at 206-448-8348 or candaceheckman@seattlepi.com.