Airline Passenger Films Baggage Handler Stealing From Suitcase, Video Goes Viral

A Ryanair passenger caught a baggage handler opening a suitcase and stealing a speaker, the Sun reported Sunday. The passenger, who was traveling from Ibiza to Madrid, Spain, alerted an air steward about the incident.

The video showed the handler unzipping a passenger’s suitcase placed on a luggage trolley and pulling out a red speaker that he shoved in his pocket.

Police said the man confessed to stealing the item, which was returned to its owner -- a teenager traveling to the Spanish capital with his mother. The incident, which was first reported by the Sun, took place Friday morning.

“The police told me it was the third day the man had been working at the airport and returned the speaker to me immediately... I was very grateful because I had bought it for my son’s birthday," the boy's mother told local media Diario de Ibiza.

The baggage handler, who had started working three days before the incident, was fired and will face trial on theft charges.

This is not the first time a baggage handler was accused of mistreating passengers' luggage. In May, a woman caught a ground crew member on camera throwing luggage carelessly at Honolulu airport while loading up a flight to Phoenix.

“The mystery of all my broken suitcases is solved — this is the ground crew at Honolulu loading up a @HawaiianAir flight to Phoenix,” Vanessa Marsh tweeted at the time, prompting Hawaiian Airlines to comment.

“Aloha Vanessa, we’re very sorry to see this and appreciate you bringing it to our attention,” the authorities wrote. “The way these bags were handled is not acceptable and our Airport Operations Management team is addressing this situation. Thank you.”

In another incident, which took place last year, baggage handlers were filmed hurling and kicking bags after dragging them from a plane at London’s Luton Airport.

The furious passenger who captured the incident said at the time: “How can you be so sick and disrespectful? Hope these idiots get kicked in the face — and then fired.”