Don’t Automatically Freak Out If You See A Worker Just Yeeting Things Out Of A Plane

Good luggage is expensive, and that’s even before you get to the value of the stuff you may have packed inside said luggage. I mean, when I packed for Hawaii, I certainly wasn’t going to leave my Xbox behind, and if a baggage handler had broken that despite my best attempts to pack it safely, I would have been pissed as hell. So it’s understandable that the video embedded below, showing a worker throwing what’s assumed to be luggage down an entire staircase, has gone viral. 

And if it really was luggage being tossed around like that, the outrage the video has generated would be completely valid. If you check a bag on a flight, you have to accept that it probably won’t be treated like a Fabergé egg, but a baggage handler literally throwing your bag off the plane would be a step too far. You would be completely within your rights to get mad about that, whether it was the baggage handler’s fault for being lazy or their employer’s fault for demanding impossibly short unloading times. 

Even if airlines can’t possibly guarantee every checked bag will get the white glove treatment, it’s still completely reasonable to expect your bag won’t be hurled out of the plane onto the tarmac. But is there more going on here than you’d initially assume?

The video you see here appears to be real and shows a worker hurling something out of a Qatar Airways jet at the Madrid–Barajas Airport, but while it’s easy to assume they’re giving luggage the worst treatment anyone has ever seen, do you actually know it’s luggage? As the Sun (somewhat unexpectedly, considering its reputation) correctly points out, there are plenty of reasons to doubt the items being yeeted out of the plane are checked luggage. 

After all, the objects being thrown appear to be coming from the passenger compartment, not the cargo hold. People do occasionally forget their carry-ons and personal items while getting off the plane, but even on a flight with several hundred passengers, you wouldn’t think there would be enough forgotten carry-ons to justify bringing in a baggage handler to toss them down the stairs. Instead, it seems much more likely that they’re tossing blankets and pillows or some other soft items down for cleaning, even if it may initially look like luggage. 

The Sun already reached out to both the airport and the airline for a comment and has yet to hear back, but if it does, don’t be surprised if they confirm it wasn’t luggage. It’s also just a good practice in general to be incredibly skeptical of anything you see online that’s outrageous or shocking, especially if whoever posted it writes in all caps. “Person A DESTROYS Person B With Their SHOCKING Response!!!” is probably overhyped grifter nonsense, and yes, that even applies to those Blue Wave grifter accounts that have gotten so popular lately.