Air Canada fires two employees for carelessly throwing passengers' bags
YouTube/TheDStewart99
Air Canada is firing two baggage handlers after a video posted on YouTube showed the men casually tossing passengers' luggage off a flight of stairs at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. Dwayne Stewart, a passenger on the Vancouver-bound flight, shot the footage Thursday while waiting for his flight to depart.
Instead of walking down the jetway's staircase, the employees flung carry-on-sized bags 20 feet below to a bin on the tarmac. The video quickly racked up more than one million views, and the online outrage prompted an investigation by Air Canada.
"The employees involved have been advised that their employment will be terminated pending the outcome of our investigation," said spokeswoman Angela Mah Sunday night to the Toronto Star. The airline did further damage control on Twitter, telling people they are "extremely disappointed" by the employees' actions. --Jordan Valinsky
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Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.
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