Hole found in Alaska plane (CONTRACT BAGGAGE HANDLER HIT PLANE

SEATTLE – An Alaska Airlines plane was forced to return to Seattle Monday after a gash in the plane’s fuselage caused the aircraft to lose pressurization.

The incident began when a ramp worker hit the plane with a baggage cart or baggage belt machine, according to National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Jim Struhsaker.

The accident created a crease in the skin of the plane which opened up into a hole when the pressure on the plane changed at 26,000 feet.

The employee told the agency that although the vehicle had touched the plane, he was not aware that he had dented it.

“At that time in the driving rain it did not appear to be significant to him,” Stuhsaker said.

According to Alaska Airlines and accounts provided to KING 5 News by passengers, flight 536 took off from Sea-Tac at 3:50 p.m., bound for Burbank, Calif.

Alaska Airlines flight 536 was forced to return to Sea-Tac Monday after it lost cabin pressure. Passenger Jeremy Hermanns took this snapshot of the scene after the oxygen masks had dropped down.

About 10 or 20 minutes into the flight, there was a loud noise and the cabin lost pressure. The plane then descended rapidly before returning to Sea-Tac, said Caroline Boren, a spokeswoman for Alaska Airlines.

“I could feel that obviously my ears popping and that's not a good symbol and that didn't go away and then it got hard to breathe and then whoosh all the compression in the plane was lost. We totally decompressed,” said passenger Jeremy Hermanns.

He said everyone on board scrambled to get their masks on and then the engine noise became very loud.

“We knew that something was going on … it was definitely frightening. It wasn't something I wanted to do again,” he said.

Jeremy Hermanns shot this image of himself with his oxygen mask on after the plane he was on lost cabin pressure.

“I'm just very glad that the pilots and the crew and everybody handled it so well,” he said.

What company did he work for that was being contracted to load baggage?

No employee name released yet...but the company is Menzies Aviation. Here's an earlier story:

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Investigators: Airline's problems spike after workers outsourced

03:11 PM PST on Thursday, December 1, 2005 By SUSANNAH FRAME / KING 5 News

An Alaska Airlines plane clipped a fuel truck at Sea-Tac Airport last Friday. The incident is under investigation.

Is there trouble on the tarmac?

Over the past three months, the KING 5 Investigators examined incidents similar to that one at Alaska Airlines.

This has become clear: safety and security problems at Alaska increased after the airline fired all its baggage handlers and outsourced the work.

At Sea-Tac International, Alaska Airlines is the biggest operation on the block.

We've analyzed three years of incident reports, FAA logs, and internal company memos.

After Menzies Aviation came on board in May, the number of incidents reported problems on the tarmac rose 300 percent.

The investigation that follows has already prompted changes at Sea-Tac airport.

Every day, 30,000 people take Alaska flights. 29,000 bags shuttle through their system.

Every day, 30,000 people take Alaska flights and 29,000 bags shuttle through their system. It takes thousands of employees to make it all happen, many of whom you rarely see: The ramp workers who load everything from pets to hazardous materials into the planes.

It's their job to safely direct aircraft in and out of the gates.

But the KING 5 Investigators have found that since Menzies took over the ramp work in May, there's been a dramatic spike in problems.

More theft from checked baggage.

More injuries to workers.

More vehicle accidents.

And a rash of aircraft damage caused by ramp workers.

Alaska had a total of 17 ramp problems in 2003, 15 in 2004. But that number jumped to 72 in the first nine months of this year.

"You can see things jump up drastically in 2005," said aviation safety expert Todd Curtis

"I can't sit here and in good conscience say that this is not a cause for concern."

curtis looked at internal company memos and documents we received through public records requests.

We found 12 incidents of planes damaged by ramp workers in just four months time.

That's more than Alaska had in all of 2004.

Safety experts say even minor damage is of concern.

“Because if anyone knowingly hits an aircraft like that, there could be damage, which, if it's not seen before takeoff, could manifest itself into something really, really bad later on," Curtis said.

A top Menzies executive, Clive Macmillan, says problems like these happen every time they take over an operation and it usually takes about six months to get the ramp work going smoothly.

"It's part of doing business," he said. "Absolutely nothing unusual at all, I think this is an absolutely standard pattern."

But officials that run Sea-Tac operations see nothing standard about what's going on.

General Manager Mark Coates was stunned when we showed him our findings.

"I am disappointed … I'm hoping that I wouldn't see this many in a whole year on the whole airport, so it is disconcerting to know that there are this many, in this short of time frame."

And the problems we found go beyond accidents.

In the first nine months of this year, the port issued 19 security citations against Alaska Airlines. Again, up substantially from three the year before -- and nine in 2003.

Alaska's director of station operations, Rick Hines, says they expected these challenges and that employees are much more familiar with procedures now.

“There’s a learning curve … so, most of what I had seen in terms of the violations were earlier on in the process. So, steady improvement, absolutely, I believe and see that that's happening," he said.

But as recently as last month, we found a critical security breach: A former Menzies employee, fired from the company, with an active and working security access badge. The employee said that the badge would allow him get access to airplanes without having to go through metal detectors.

We watched at Sea-Tac as the fired employee swiped his card at a secure door, put his fingerprint up to a sensor, entered his secret ID number and walked right into the restricted, secure area.

Even the employee said he was surprised at how easy it was.

What if this had been a disgruntled employee with full access to the ramp and to planes?

Doug Laird is the former head of security for Northwest Airlines.

"On a scale of one to ten, I would give it about a nine. It's a very, very serious violation, in my opinion," said Laird.

Airlines are required to tell the port when an employee leaves so a badge can be de-activated.

They're also responsible for reporting all accidents on the ramp. It's in the Port of Seattle policies.

Which brings us back to the damage to planes.

Only one case since Menzies started ended up on an airport log. Port officials learned about every incident from KING 5.

"Anytime there's an aircraft accident or incident, I should know about it," said Coates "and when I see this, it is disconcerting to know because we need to know a lot more information about it so we can prevent it."

So what's causing Alaska's increase in problems? The airline says it's a normal transition period.

But Chris Johnson, a former Menzies trainer and accident investigator who was let go from the company, doesn't buy it.

"I wanted to change the way that things were being done out there," he said.

He says he was ordered to send workers out to the ramp before he thought they were ready.

He said that out of the 80 people he trained, only about five were ready and able to be out working on an aircraft.

“Yeah, It's horrid," he said.

Menzies doesn't believe training shortcuts ever happen, especially with new management on board.

And Macmillian says that the incidents we found “certainly wouldn't happen now."

The most important point Alaska executives wanted make for this report is that through the transition, not one passenger has ever been put in jeopardy.

"In no way will we ever compromise the safety of our passengers, in any way, shape or form. That is number one, it is our number one goal, safety and compliance, it will never be compromised," said Hines.

The former employee you saw getting through the security system has since turned in his badge.

And since Alaska learned of our investigation, it has formed a committee to re-examine reporting its reporting system.

The Port of Seattle also says it is now in the process of training all airlines about appropriate reporting.

Alaska officials tell us they didn't realize they were supposed to report all accidents, even if they seem minor.

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