Wednesday, March 21, 2007

All there is to it!!!

Ever wonder what it's like to be plane side of the airplanes that are parked at the gates of an airport? Well, I'm about to show you. I get to see it every day on every flight. And I've had the privilege of this fun job for over 18 years! The pictures don't show all the detailed jobs that happen after each plane arrives, but it's the general idea of what we do. In addition to unloading/reloading the bags, we also have to provision the aircraft, dump/refill the lavatories, and sometimes refill the potable water. That's what is used on board for washing hands, making coffee, etc. We also have to plug some very large heater/air conditioning hoses and electrical power cords into the aircraft while the planes sit at the gate.
I wish I had a photo of the rear cargo bin but the person I had taking pictures didn't get back there for that shot. Oh well, maybe another time. It's a much larger and l o n g e r bin than the one I'm working in from the photo. We have someone working each bin at the same time. And because we have so many bags all day long, we switch off people from bin to bin, flight to flight. That way no one person is doing all the heavy lifting on every single flight. There isn't a lot of room and generally people have to work on their knees. Very physical! (Can you say, "And one and two and one and two and .....!) I hope you find this interesting......


Getting ready for the plane to arrive at the gate.
Aircraft pulling into the gate....agent directing it into the gate.
Aircraft is almost parked next to the jetway.

From front to back, bags coming off airplane.
Dave loading bags into cart that come off aircraft.
Unloading bags off airplane.

Me working in the front cargo bin of flight...unloading the Omaha bags.
Pushing the airplane back away for departure.

The flight is leaving Omaha
Eating lunch after working the flight.

3 comments:

Kevin Moberg said...

Doesn't this entire post constitute some kind of breach of airline security?

How do you know that you've gotten all the Omaha bags off the flight? Does whoever loaded them in the first place make sure to stack them all together, or do you have to paw through them all yourself?

Why aren't you eating a healthier lunch?

Why don't your sister or father ever comment on your blog?

Sandal said...

Generally the Omaha bags are loaded in a seperate bin by themselves. We rarely have any other cities' bags to sort through when we unload our own. Once in a while our baggage service office will call and ask us to look for any bag that may be missing. Most of the time the bag isn't on the plane. Sometimes it is, however.

No, this isn't a breach of security.

I didn't have any leftovers to bring with me that peticular day!

I have no idea why no else comments. All my friends know the web site address. :(

Susan said...

Boy, you people are good at guilt :-) So -- I'm not a sister or a father, but will a post by a sister-in-law suffice?

Loved seeing the pictures of what you do -- reminded me of when the girls and I came with you to pick up Cathy from the airport one year and we got a "behind the scenes" tour. Of course, we didn't get to see you in action!