This is an airport worker in Hawaii, not a South African Airways baggage handler

This article is more than one year old.
Published on December 13, 2019 at 11:56
3 min read
By AFP South Africa, Tendai DUBE

A video from 2018 showing a baggage handler carelessly throwing luggage from the hold of an aeroplane has resurfaced. The latest post claims the worker is a South African Airways (SAA) employee, when in fact she is a member of ground crew in Honolulu. Hawaiian Airlines apologised for the worker’s conduct.

A tweet identifying the woman as a South African Airways employee shared the video on November 28, 2019 in an overtly racial context. We’ve archived the post, which was shared more than 200 times, here. The caption reads: “BLACK South African woman at South African Airlines destroying luggage of flight passengers! Boikot SAA!!!! SAA is a racist BBBEE Enterprise and their workers are disrespectful!”

A screenshot taken on December 9, 2019 of the misleading tweet

BBBEE stands for Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment and is a policy position of the South African government to ensure economic opportunities are afforded to black-owned businesses as redress for apartheid.

But the term has been incorrectly used in this tweet. South Africa Airlines is a state-owned enterprise, as it was during apartheid. While affirmative action policies are applicable to all employers when it comes to hiring, including the airline, a “BBBEE enterprise” would refer to a black-owned business receiving preferential access to contracts or tenders.

To locate the origin of the video, AFP used online search tool InVid, which creates screenshots and then scours Google for similar images. The result was matched to a 2018 article on Britain’s Daily Mail website detailing how reporter Vanessa Marsh tweeted to Hawaiian Air on May 10, 2018 about her flight from Honolulu to Phoenix, with the same video attached.

The mystery of all my broken suitcases is solved - this is the ground crew at Honolulu loading up a @HawaiianAir flight to Phoenix. ?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/rPwVobqXZO
— Vanessa Marsh (@vanessaleemarsh) May 9, 2018

The airline quickly replied to Marsh’s tweet, saying the employee's behaviour was “not acceptable” and that they would be "addressing the situation".

Aloha Vanessa, we’re very sorry to see this and appreciate you bringing it to our attention. The way these bags were handled is not acceptable and our Airport Operations Management team is addressing this situation. Thank you.
— Hawaiian Airlines (@HawaiianAir) May 10, 2018

Numerous reports, including here and here, covered the incident at the time.

The same video can be found posted here and here on Facebook, shared hundreds of thousands of times. Neither post links the handler to a specific airline.

Oher social media users shared the footage, either blaming South Africa Airlines or questioning whether the employee in the video really worked for the company.

A screenshot taken on December 10, 2019 of shares connecting the video to SAA

South African Airlines spokesman Tlali Tlali said the company's employees do not handle passengers’ luggage beyond the check-in counters, where they are weighed, tagged and released through the automated conveyor belt for screening and loading onto the aircraft.

Accredited companies are responsible for screening and loading bags onto the plane, as well as offloading them from the plane onto carousels upon landing, he told AFP via email.

"We are satisfied that this has nothing to do with SAA or any of its service providers responsible for ground handling," he said.

Tlali said staff for the three service providers contracted to SAA in South Africa do not wear the same uniform as the woman in the video, and that the chute alongside the plane is unlike the automated conveyor belts used in South Africa.

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