There’s so much to worry about when you get to the airport – checking in, waiting in line at the security checkpoint, taking off your shoes, putting your shoes back on, paying $8 for a bottle of water…and of course, your suitcase.
Where did they take it? Will you ever see it again? Is the TSA rummaging through your clothes at this very moment? You didn’t accidentally leave any lithium batteries or lighters or fireworks or families of possums in there, did you?
But rest assured, once your luggage disappears behind the check-in desk, it’s in good hands.
On the first episode of Mike Simpson’s new podcast “Do You Work Here?,” the United Airlines cargo and baggage crew pulled back the curtain – or rather, the plastic flaps – on what’s going on behind the scenes at LAX.
“Most airports have almost like an underground city where the bag starts its process,” said Mike Del Nigro.
The conveyor belts in the baggage sorting area area equipped with scanners that read the barcode on each luggage tag, making sure every bag is directed to the right plane. Once the bags are X-rayed and cleared by TSA, they’re sent back up to ground level, loaded into carts, and hauled off to the planes.
Then the pressure’s on: there are countdown timers above every gate telling the crew how long they have to get the baggage loaded before takeoff.
“It's like human Tetris,” Del Nigro said. “Sometimes flights aren't as full as others, but there are times where you have to make sure you load every bit of space you have.”
Suitcases aren’t the only thing being loaded up. Lisa House-Odums, who works in the cargo department, said she’s helped ship everything from luxury cars to a live lion.
“I don’t even know what they’re shipping. I just know it needs to go,” she said. “We really ship a lot of important things, like during the pandemic, we were the first one to bring the vaccine into the US. Also, we have this program called Lifeguard, which is kind of my favorite. It's shipping vital organs to be transplanted.”
Listen to the full episode of “Do You Work Here?” above, and subscribe for more.
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